The Beatles will release a final record, using John Lennon's voice via an AI assist

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June 13th, 2023

Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell pose for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'If These Walls Could Sing' in London, Monday, Dec. 12, 2022. Artificial intelligence has been used to extract John Lennon's voice from an old demo to create “the last Beatles record,” Paul McCartney said Tuesday, June 13, 2023. McCartney, 80, told the BBC that the technology was used to separate the Beatles' voices from background sounds during the making of director Peter Jackson's 2021 documentary series, “The Beatles: Get Back." (Photo by Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP, File)

The music has analog roots, but now it’s being revived by futuristic technology: The Beatles have completed a new recording using an old demo tape by John Lennon, thanks to AI tools that isolate Lennon’s voice, according to Paul McCartney.

“We just finished it up, it’ll be released this year,” McCartney, Lennon’s former bandmate, told the Today program on BBC Radio 4. It will be “the last Beatles record,” said McCartney, who along with Ringo Starr is one of two surviving band members.

But if you’re picturing McCartney sitting at a keyboard and telling ChatGPT, “sing a John Lennon verse,” that’s not what happened. Instead, they used source material from a demo recording that Lennon made before his death in 1980.

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