The Beatles have won a Grammy Award for their song "Now and Then," thanks to a little help from artificial intelligence (AI). The 2023 track is the first song to use AI technology to earn a Grammy nomination. The legendary band took home the award for Best Rock Performance, beating out serious competition including Green Day, Pearl Jam, The Black Keys, Idles and St. Vincent.
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But how was AI used in the Beatles' song "Now and Then"? Essentially, the song includes a demo recorded by John Lennon in the late 1970s, with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison later (in the mid-1990s) their own contributions, with the aim of including the latter song in The Beatles Anthology project. However, "Now and Then" was not released due to technical limitations at the time.
McCartney and Starr completed the song in 2021 with the help of director Peter Jackson and his sound team. Using AI, specifically machine learning technology, they were able to isolate and clean up certain elements from Lennon's recording. Essentially, the AI wasn't used to create the song in the first place, but it helped fix some technical issues.
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"To be clear, nothing has been artificially created or synthetically created. It's all real and we're all part of it," McCartney said in 2023. "We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process that's been going on for years."
With the advancement of technology, artists now have unprecedented access to tools that can enhance their art and potentially push boundaries in new ways.
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AI can also help create music from scratch, but we must remember that it is a tool used by human creators. The essence, emotion and soul behind any artistic creation still come from the minds and hearts of humans. Therefore, AI should not be seen as a substitute for human creativity, but rather as a complement and extension of it (as was the case with the Beatles’ Grammy-winning Now and Then). As technology continues to evolve, the possibilities for collaboration between humans and AI in the creative process are endless, opening up new opportunities and pushing artistic boundaries even further.
Source: www.theverge.com
