Fans surround Beatles Paul McCartney and George Harrison upon their arrival at Orly airport on June 20, 1965, before their concert at the Palais des Sports the same evening. When the Beatles broke up more than 50 years ago, devastated fans were left yearning for more. Now, artificial intelligence is offering just that.-/AFP/Getty Images
At the end of an interview with the BBC released on Tuesday, Paul McCartney dropped a bombshell about a new – and “final” – Beatles song that had been brought to life with the help of artificial intelligence. The unnamed track, to be released some time this year, is believed to have originated from a rough demo of a 1978 John Lennon composition called Now and Then.
“We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through AI,” the 80-year-old pop icon explained. McCartney also elaborated on the use of AI in music making in general, saying there is a “good side” to it and a “scary side,” and that “we’ll just have to see where that leads.”
Reacting to McCartney’s comments, excitable news sources seized on the scary side of AI possibilities by suggesting something ghoulish was at work. The American breakfast television program CBS Mornings, for example, tweeted that AI was used to “bring voices back from the grave, by mimicking the late John Lennon and George Harrison.”
Which is nonsense. An old recording was cleaned up using “demixing” and denoising techniques to isolate 100 per cent human vocals. The same technology was used by director Peter Jackson for his 2021 Beatles documentary Get Back. There was no “mimicking,” nor was any new music robotically created.
“We may be the only media outlet not to run a misleading headline about this,” Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt tweeted.
What can’t be contested is AI as a disruptive force in the arts. The subject was addressed almost immediately at last week’s Canadian Music Week (CMW) summit in Toronto. In his conference-opening keynote “state of the industry” address, Music Canada CEO Patrick Rogers spoke about the “hot topic of the day,” mentioning the AI-created “fake Drake” track that recently rattled the industry when it went viral before being taken down from streaming services.
“When it comes to AI generative deep fakes we cannot let the wow factor of the technology distract us from the fact that it was created through theft,” Rogers said, referring to copyright and licensing infringements.
AI-generated sonic forgeries, including one that imagined a groovy Beatles cover of Brian Wilson’s God Only Knows last month, are popping up online with increasing frequency. In response, an advocacy group comprised of dozens of entertainment industry representatives was launched at this spring’s SXSW festival in Austin, Tex. The Human Artistry Campaign’s goal is to set up guidelines for responsible use of new technologies and guardrails to preserve human expression and artistry.
“I’d like to see a set of agreed principles with legal teeth so that artists, the music industry, streaming services and audiences can understand what is – and is not – allowed,” group member and singer-songwriter/voice actor Dan Navarro told National Public Radio recently.
The same type of concerns were targeted at CMW, where Music Canada’s Miranda Mulholland led a panel discussion titled Artificial Intelligence and Safeguarding Human Artistry. It addressed not only the risks posed to artists but the benefits AI could bring them. Tools to unlock creativity, such as songwriting apps, were touted as ways AI could enhance, not replace, human creativity.
It was a level-headed chat – not all gloom, doom and the Martians have landed. About the fake Drake song, Heart on My Sleeve, it was pointed out that most of the track’s streams were singular listens. Fans heard it once for the novelty of it, then moved on. The suggestion was that real music by our favourite artists is preferable to the frauds.
There are legitimately terrifying concerns with AI in the music industry, as well as in television and film, where soundtrack composers and voice actors are professions particularly in peril. Raising false alarm over a new Beatles track that has been created without generative robotry is a distraction from the authentic issues at hand.
In 1975, Eric Idle of the British comedy troupe Monty Python created a parody Beatles band called the Rutles. When the news dropped of the new Beatles track this week, Idle was asked if, in fact, the song came from the Rutles. “Nah,” the comedian tweeted, “the Rutles one was created by artificial stupidity.”
Artificial stupidity – the threat is real.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Paul McCartney is 82. He is 80 years old.