Last week, the news came out that The Beatles are releasing a new song with a ‘little help from their AI friend’. It took me a bit of time to try to be circumspect about it, so I decided to think on it over the weekend.

I read what I could about it, trying to understand why this was so important to do that they did it. After all, one Beatle didn’t like the song suspected of being done.

…Sir Paul later claimed George Harrison refused to work on the song, saying the sound quality of Lennon’s vocal was “rubbish”.

“It didn’t have a very good title, it needed a bit of reworking, but it had a beautiful verse and it had John singing it,” he told Q Magazine.

“[But] George didn’t like it. The Beatles being a democracy, we didn’t do it.”…

“Sir Paul McCartney says artificial intelligence has enabled a ‘final’ Beatles song“, BBC, Mark Savage, June 13th 2022.

Given George Harrison died in 2001 of lung cancer, we see that democracy doesn’t die when a voter dies, a point worth remembering the next time you’re discussing healthcare.

That beautiful verse must be something. I remember when John Lennon died, and how the world mourned his passing. I was 9 years old when it happened, and didn’t appreciate his work as I did later on in life, but the world felt cold and distant that day. Something was taken from us, violently. Most of us didn’t understand why, most of us still don’t understand why, but John Lennon was gone.

There’s some emotion involved here because Lennon’s death is within living memory. For me, it’s a balance of hearing a ‘last song of Lennon’ versus, ‘Lennon’s voice as a technological marionette’.

Of course, The Beatles have been no strangers to innovation and pushing boundaries. That’s part of what made them The Beatles.

“…As the BBC notes, the “new” Beatles song set to be released later this year is probably “Now and Then.” The ballad was among the homemade Lennon demos Yoko Ono, Lennon’s widow, gave to McCartney. But unlike “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” — songs the band was able to complete and put out in 1995 and 1996 — The Beatles quit working on “Now and Then” and never released it.”…As the BBC notes, the “new” Beatles song set to be released later this year is probably “Now and Then.” The ballad was among the homemade Lennon demos Yoko Ono, Lennon’s widow, gave to McCartney. But unlike “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” — songs the band was able to complete and put out in 1995 and 1996 — The Beatles quit working on “Now and Then” and never released it.

The band took some flak for releasing two songs years after Lennon’s murder in 1980. But they were simply following their longtime practice: Use the latest technology to push the bounds of creativity…”

“Opinion: The fifth Beatle is artificial intelligence“, CNN, Jere Hester, June 16th, 2023.

Personally, I think with Sir Paul McCartney working on this, and being a part of his living memory, this could be good. They were a band, they knew each other, and this song isn’t a ‘new creation’ as much as something that they just never got back to.

I also think that he needs to assure that the door is shut after this. Some things need to end so that their value is understood.

We can’t go around allowing publishing companies to use the attributes of humans for their own gain in this way for new songs, movies or books, I think. They’ve already done it with copyright, but there’s a bit more at stake here.

It’s about being human, and all of the experts on the planet haven’t really figured out all that encompasses – but we need a few boundaries.