According to Sir Paul McCartney, the Beatles used artificial intelligence to assist in the production of what he refers to as "the final Beatles record.".
He claimed in an interview with Radio 4's Today program that the technology was used to "extricate" John Lennon's voice from an old demo so he could finish the song.
It will be released this year, we just finished it up, he said.
The song, which Sir Paul did not give a title to, was probably written by John Lennon in 1978 and is titled Now And Then.
In 1995, when the Beatles were compiling their career-spanning Anthology series, it had already been discussed as a potential "reunion song" for them.
Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, had given the demo to Sir Paul a year earlier. It was one of several songs on a cassette Lennon had recorded just before his passing in 1980, with the title "For Paul.".
The tracks are lo-fi and unfinished; they were primarily recorded onto a boombox as the musician played the piano in his New York apartment.
Two of those songs, Free As A Bird and Real Love, were finished and released in 1995 and 1996 after being cleaned up by producer Jeff Lynne. This was the Beatles' first "new" material in 25 years.
In addition, the band tried to record Now And Then, a love song with an apology that was fairly typical of his later career, but the session was abruptly ended.
It was only messed with for one day, or really just one afternoon, Lynne recalled.
"The song had a chorus, but the verses are almost entirely missing. We started working on the backing track, but we never really finished it. ".
Later, Sir Paul asserted that George Harrison had rejected the song as "rubbish" and stopped working on it.
He told Q Magazine, "It had a beautiful verse and John singing it, but it didn't have a very good title and needed a little work.".
George, however, wasn't a fan. We didn't do it because The Beatles are a democracy. ".
The original recording was rumored to have had technical problems because it had a persistent "buzz" coming from the electrical circuits in John Lennon's apartment.
The demo was updated in 2009 and distributed on a bootleg CD without the ambient noise. Fans have conjectured that this recording might not have existed in 1995 and that, after his passing, it was stolen from his apartment along with other belongings.
Sir Paul has expressed his desire to complete the song on numerous occasions in the intervening years.
In a 2012 BBC Four Jeff Lynne documentary, he stated, "That one's still hanging around.". "So I'm going to do it while Jeff nicks in. One of these days, complete it. ".
It appears that the musician now has a chance to accomplish that goal thanks to technology.
Peter Jackson's Get Back documentary marked a turning point when dialogue editor Emile de la Rey taught computers to recognize the Beatles' voices and distinguish them from outside noises, including their own instruments, to produce "clean" audio.
On Lennon's most recent tour, McCartney and Lennon were able to "duet," and last year, new surround sound mixes of the Beatles' Revolver album were produced using the same method.
The Fab Four have just released some brand-new music.
According to McCartney, "He [Jackson] was able to extricate John's voice from a ropey little bit of cassette," Martha Kearney of Radio 4 asked.
"John could separate a piano and John's voice using AI. They instruct the computer. That voice, I hear. This is an instrument. Get rid of the guitar.
John had a demo when it came time to make the final Beatles record, and we were able to use this AI to extract John's voice in its purest form.
"After that, we can mix the album as we normally would. Consequently, it gives you some latitude. ".
The musician acknowledged, however, that he was concerned about other applications of AI.
I don't spend a lot of time online, but people will occasionally tell me, "Oh, yeah, there's a track where John's singing one of my songs, and it's just AI, you know?
"Because it's the future, it's a little frightening but also exciting. Simply wait and see where that goes. ".
Before a photography exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery opened, the celebrity spoke with BBC Radio 4.
Its title, Eye Of The Storm, refers to the portraits McCartney took between December 1963 and February 1964, when the Beatles were propelled to international fame.
