Paul McCartney Is Using AI to Make a ‘Final’ Beatles Song

A “final” song by The Beatles is on the docket to emerge later this year after the Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney, now 80, used AI to extract the voice of the late John Lennon, his famed Beatles bandmate and songwriting partner, to make a new recording from an older tune.

Artificial intelligence, meet the Beatles.

Calling it “the final Beatles record” on Radio 4’s Today on June 13, McCartney explained that AI technology was employed to “extricate” Lennon’s voice from the old demo recording to complete the tune, according to a subsequent report by the BBC.

READ MORE: Liam Gallagher Responds to Artificially Generated ‘AI Oasis’ Band

“We just finished it up,” McCartney says, “and it’ll be released this year.”

While it’s currently unclear exactly what song the “final” Beatles record will be, several sources have reported the rumor that it could be a re-worked version of Lennon’s song “Now and Then,” also referred to as “I Don’t Want to Lose You” or “Miss You.” The tune has remained as an unfinished 1978 piano-and-vocal Lennon demo which was recorded before the Beatles icon died in 1980.

The AI Beatles

The Beatles have used Lennon’s voice from his old demos to make new Beatle recordings before, as some longtime listeners might remember.

In 1995, as part of The Beatles Anthology, the surviving Beatles (including George Harrison, who died in 2001) incorporated Lennon’s demos to make “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love.” Both emerged as singles from the Anthology in 1995 and 1996.

The Beatles, “Free as a Bird” (1995)

Artificial Intelligence in Music

With the rise of AI and its related applications such as ChatGPT, AI is finding a foothold in music. After an AI-created unofficial Oasis album recently emerged, former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher said AI would be the final nail in the coffin of music.

Perhaps the most notable instance so far of AI capturing a listener base happened in April when an unauthorized AI-voiced song replicating hip-hop stars Drake and The Weeknd went viral. It was subsequently removed from streaming services, as NBC News then reported.