When it comes to artificial intelligence, Sir Paul McCartney doesn’t sound like he’s willing to just “Let It Be.”
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program released Tuesday,the legendary musician and former Beatle was asked about AI and how it’s been used to make his voice sound younger – and to resurrect the voices of fellow band members John Lennon and George Harrison who died in 1980 and 2001, respectively.
And he revealed there’s a “new” Beatles tune coming, thanks to the technology.
“When we came to make what will be the last Beatles record – it was a demo that John had that we worked on and we just finished it up, it will be released this year – and we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI,” McCartney said. “So then we were able to mix the record as you would normally do.”
While McCartney’s not on the internet much, he said, he’s aware of AI being used to do things like have Lennon sing one of his songs – which he said was “kind of scary.”
“It’s something we’re all sort of tackling at the moment and trying to deal with,” McCartney said.
According to McCartney, AI was used to isolate Lennon’s voice from a demo track for the Peter Jackson directed 2021 docuseries “The Beatles: Get Back” about the making of the Beatles’ 1970 album “Let It Be.”
There’s “a good side and a scary side” to AI, McCartney said, so “we’ll just have to see where that leads.”
