Here comes the AI: The Beatles’ last song resurrected by artificial intelligence gets a Grammy nomination

Who knew that 50 years later their big split, The Beatles would be up for a Grammy? Thanks to the power of machine learning AI, “Now and Then” is now up for not one but two Grammy nominations. The song — recreated with the help of AI — is up for best rock performance and record of the year awards.

How AI was used to bring back John Lennon’s voice

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr dipped into  machine learning to transform a rough, low-fidelity demo by John Lennon into a fully produced song. The Beatles first explored the possibility of developing Lennon’s “Now and Then” in the mid-1990s, when McCartney, George Harrison, and Starr reunited to create fresh tracks for the Anthology albums. However, the attempts failed. Decades later the song came to life thanks to machine learning which helped to separate the vocals from instruments.

In a documentary about the song, McCartney said, “To still be working on Beatles music in 2023... wow. We’re actually messing around with state-of-the-art technology, which is something the Beatles would’ve been very interested in. ‘Now and Then,’ it’s probably like the last Beatles song. And we’ve all played on it, so it is a genuine Beatle recording.”