Legendry singer Paul McCartney says there's nothing artificial in new Beatles song made using AI
British group used AI to add late John Lennon's voice onto the upcoming track
Paul McCartney has clarified the use of artificial intelligence in 'The Beatles' new song after it caused quite a buzz on social media.
In a BBC radio interview, Paul recently shared that the British super group would be releasing a song this year and using AI to add the late John Lennon's voice onto the track. But given that the technology is at the center of many ethical debates, some fans took to social media, questioning its use, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Seeing fans' confusion, Paul took to Twitter and wrote, "Been great to see such an exciting response to our forthcoming Beatles project. No one is more excited than us to be sharing something with you later in the year."
"We've seen some confusion and speculation about it. Seems to be a lot of guess work out there. Can't say too much at this stage but to be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It's all real and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings - a process which has gone on for years. We hope you love it as much as we do. More news in due course," he added.
McCartney's initial announcement last week detailed how the new song even came to be and what inspired them to finish it.
"When we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, it was a demo that John had," McCartney explained during the interview. "We were able to take John's voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do."
It was then the 2021 Beatles documentary Get Back, directed by Peter Jackson, that pushed them to actually complete the song because McCartney said that Jackson "was able to extricate John's voice from a ropey little bit of cassette."
"We had John's voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI," he added. "They tell the machine, 'That's the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar.'"