The artificial intelligence industry has grown exponentially in the past two years. Although we grew up using Siri, Alexa, Google, and Cortana, they simply don’t compete with what’s available today. ChatGPT may be the most well-known artificial intelligence tool out there, but now it seems that almost every tech platform has its own AI. GrammarlyGO, Canva MagicDesign, Khanmigo, NightCafe, OpenAI Art, and Hotpot are just a few smaller ones. The ethics of generating art and text, which could plagiarize preexisting human sources, could be harmless when used for fun and nothing else. However, the idea of generating music that can be sold for profit makes many people uneasy. It is comforting to know, though, that AI did not generate the lyrics of “Now and Then”, the newest Beatles song released through the power of artificial intelligence. John Lennon wrote and recorded the song in his New York apartment shortly before he was shot in 1980. 

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr’s main motivation for using AI to make new music was that the death of two of their members, George Harrison and John Lennon, has prevented them from producing any new content of the group. Despite attempts to replicate the song by cutting-and-pasting Lennon’s verses from the tape, the technological limitations of the 1990s forced the band to put off the project to a later time. Sadly, George Harrison would pass away a few years later from cancer. However, the usage of AI as an augmenting tool allowed the song to finally be completed.

Now, artificial intelligence has dramatically improved from its past as a digital assistant pre-programmed with calls and responses. The Beatles, along with producers Giles Martin and Peter Jackson (yes, the one from the Lord of the Rings), and with the help of Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison, and Sean Harrison, were able to not only include their deceased bandmates’ voices in the final cut, but also made a music video mixing old and new footage.