The Beatles’ AI-assisted track “Now and Then” won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance on Sunday night, marking the first time that a song of its kind has taken home the award.
No, Paul McCartney did not use AI to create some creepy LennonGPT bot. Instead, he used noise reduction systems to clean up a decades-old, low-quality piano demo from his late bandmate. This technology is similar to what video call providers like Zoom, FaceTime, and Google Meet use to block out unwanted background noise and deliver a clearer sound.
The surviving Beatles first tried to fix up Lennon’s demo in the 90s, but the technology available at the time couldn’t quite extract Lennon’s muffled vocals. In 2022, after learning how the filmmakers behind archival Beatles documentary “Get Back” were using new audio isolation techniques to make poorly recorded demos listenable, they revisited “Now and Then.”