Paul McCartney has collaborated with countless artists over his 60-year career, from Rihanna to Michael Jackson. Now, the former Beatle has teamed up with artificial intelligence.
In an interview with the BBC's "Best of Today" this week, the 80-year-old revealed that AI has made it possible to release one "last Beatles record."
McCartney said that during the creation Peter Jackson's 2021 Beatles docuseries "The Beatles: Get Back," they found an old demo tape that John Lennon had recorded.
Through the use of artificial intelligence, they were able to start the process of taking the decades-old recording and turning it into something usable.
"[Peter Jackson] was able to extricate John's voice from a ropey little bit of cassette," he said. "He could tell the machine 'That's the voice. This is the guitar. Lose the guitar.'"
[Peter Jackson] was able to extricate John's voice from a ropey little bit of cassette.Paul McCartney
"We were able to take John's voice and get it pure through this AI," McCartney continued. "Then we could mix the record as you would normally do."
McCartney said that the song will be released this year.
Though he called recent uses of AI in music "kind of scary" — in April, a rap song featuring AI-generated voices mimicking Drake and The Weeknd was yanked from streaming services — the "Let It Be" singer admitted that the technology is "exciting, because it's the future."
"There's a good side to it, and then a scary side," he said of AI. "And we'll just have to see where that leads."
CNBC last month reported on the potential risks that AI could pose to the music industry, including copyright issues and disruption of the ways companies operate and bring in revenue through royalties.
"If AI is able to create the next hit song, then you've broken that model and that's an existential challenge for music labels, and for pop stars," Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett told CNBC.
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