The internet was abuzz this week with Paul McCartney announcing a forthcoming Beatles track that makes use of AI technology. McCartney announced on a BBC Radio, “We just finished it up and it’ll be released this year.” McCartney said that new technology was used to “extricate” the voice of former Beatle leader John Lennon from an old demo recording. While McCartney did not mention any title, it was surmised that the ‘new’ song was an old demo by Lennon made back in 1978 titled “Now and Then.” According to Beatles lore, “Now and Then” was one of several songs in a cassette labelled “For Paul” that Lennon made just before that latter’s tragic death in 1980. Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono later gave the cassette to McCartney. Recall that the remaining Beatles have worked on old demos before. 1995’s “Anthology” albums featured Lennon's demo recordings for “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” which McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr completed and was eventually released as singles. Using AI technology to extricate Lennon’s voice from an old cassette came from director Peter Jackson who oversaw the remake of “Get Back” back in 2021. Custom-made AI was used to isolate the voices of the Beatles from background noise from old tapes. The same process was used for Lennon’s voice on the cassette that was recorded from a boom box beside a piano in his apartment in New York. The remaining Beatles was already working on “Now and Then” back in 1995 but had abandoned it only to pick it up again this time using the latest technology. McCartney said “We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI.”