The Beatles' AI-assisted song's Grammy nomination could 'push the limit' on interest in the technology

The Beatles' return to the Grammys has come with an assist from artificial intelligence.

"Now and Then" is nominated for record of the year and best rock performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards, making it the first nominated song ever to use AI in its production.

The song utilized AI to clean up old demo recordings of John Lennon singing and playing piano, recorded in the late 1970s, as well as a guitar track from George Harrison, recorded six years before his death in 2001.

"To me, this is a cool example of how AI can function in our current environment," Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

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Mason took pains to clarify that a new academy rule allowing AI-assisted music to be submitted for Grammy consideration stipulates that the use of AI must enhance rather than replace the work of humans. In this case, he said, AI was "really like an editing tool" that enabled The Beatles to isolate a John Lennon vocal recording from the late ’70s "that was previously maybe unusable."

"When we think of AI as a tool for artists and not a replacement for them, people are more open to AI becoming part of creative work," Eric Burgess, CEO and co-founder of Credtent, an organization that helps creators protect their work from being used for AI without permission, told Fox News Digital. "It’s like using Photoshop to clean up an image. We’ve been doing that kind of nip-tuck work on creative outputs for a while.

"To me, this is a cool example of how AI can function in our current environment."

— Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr.

"There’s also a huge space between using generative AI for ideation and finding creative synergy with AI tools and slacking off and just letting an AI just do your work. The latter is deeply unsatisfying for an artist, but what is motivating the person creating the work is usually the tell-tale sign of how far they lean into slacking."

"Positioned as 'the last Beatles song,' people are indeed not only more forgiving but actually eager to listen to the latest track of a band that released its last song half a century ago," Andreas Welsch, founder and chief AI strategist at Intelligence Briefing, said. 

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"It's the purpose for which AI has been used (to enhance and restore John Lennon's voice) while maintaining the integrity of the band and sound, not to use John Lennon's voice to sing the lyrics of a rap song."

When the song was first announced in early 2023, fans were outraged by Paul McCartney’s mention of using AI on a song, particularly with Lennon’s voice. 

In June, he told BBC Radio 4’s "Today" they were able to use similar technology that Peter Jackson did in "The Beatles: Get Back" docuseries, when the director and his team were able to "de-mix" the original film’s soundtrack, isolating instruments, vocals and the individual voices of the band members, allowing for previously unheard conversations to come to light.

"And he was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette where it had John’s voice and a piano — he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine, ‘That is a voice, this is a guitar, lose the guitar.' And he did that," McCartney said.

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"So, when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record — it was a demo that John had — that we worked on and we just finished it up, it will be released this year," he added. "We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI. So, then we could mix the record as you would normally do. It gives you some sort of leeway. So, there is a good side to it and then a scary side, and we will just have to see where that leads." 

The mention of AI caused a stir among fans who thought Lennon’s vocals had been faked.

McCartney later clarified his comments on social media.

"We've seen some confusion and speculation about it," he shared to X. "Can’t say too much at this stage but to be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It’s all real and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings — a process which has gone on for years."

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Starr also spoke about the song, telling Rolling Stone the group would "never" fake Lennon’s voice.

"AI opens up new possibilities to restore other tracks — something that music enthusiasts will enjoy," Welsch said. "Similar to sampling, artists can use AI to generate new samples or new songs with significant AI influence." 

He added, "As the technology to generate entire songs matures further, songs can be hyperpersonalized based on a listener's individual preferences and styles. This will enable new and previously unseen possibilities. However, like in the AI-generated song in the style of Drake/Weeknd in 2023, copyright law needs to evolve to clarify rights and ownership."

In 2023, an anonymous producer who goes by the name Ghostwriter released an AI song, "Heart on My Sleeve," which deepfaked the voices of Drake and The Weeknd. 

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"Heart on My Sleeve" was submitted in two categories for the Grammys — best rap song and song of the year.

"I knew right away as soon as I heard that record that it was going to be something that we had to grapple with from an Academy standpoint, but also from a music community and industry standpoint," Mason told The New York Times.

And while he praised the technology and Ghostwriter’s efforts, Mason later clarified in a post on social media that "this version of ‘Heart on My Sleeve’ using the AI voice modeling, that sounds like Drake and The Weeknd, it’s not eligible for Grammy consideration."

Ghostwriter told Billboard he was still eligible for the categories he had submitted the song for, but a representative for the Recording Academy told the outlet the song was eligible in songwriting-related categories, but only through a resubmitted version of "Heart on My Sleeve" that removed the AI-generated voice elements. It ultimately earned no nominations for that year’s ceremony.

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Given The Beatles earned two nominations for "Now and Then" and its AI-enhanced audio, Burgess said, "For some artists, it’s going to encourage them to dive more deeply into how they can use AI tools to make great music… and they will push the limit beyond the tricks The Beatles’ studio techs came up with. This is primarily the motivation for people making commercial music, of course." 

"Musicians who create music for the joy of composition and playing will likely continue to avoid using AI or will only use it when they absolutely need to do something that isn’t possible without AI," he added. "For artistic musicians, they don’t want to lose the joy and experience of the creative act just to get to the creative product faster."

Welsch said, "Like other creative forms of art, there are concerns about the use of AI in creating music. Who holds the copyright, who infringes on it, and does the training and use of AI fall under fair use of the original work? On a human level, there are concerns about humans' creative skills being taken over by AI and the latest set of strengths being superseded by machines."

Upon the song’s release last year, McCartney and Starr shared how special it was to have the band back together one last time.

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In a statement, McCartney said, "There it was, John’s voice, crystal clear. It’s quite emotional. And we all play on it, it’s a genuine Beatles recording. In 2023, to still be working on Beatles music, and about to release a new song the public haven’t heard, I think it’s an exciting thing."

Starr said, "It was the closest we’ll ever come to having him back in the room, so it was very emotional for all of us. It was like John was there, you know. It’s far out."

In a statement on X, The Beatles thanked the Recording Academy for the nominations. 

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Throughout their career, the band has earned 23 nominations and seven wins. In 2014, they took home the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

They’ve been nominated for record of the year three times previously but have never taken home the award.

"As a huge Beatles fan, I’m delighted to hear anything new, but will the song actually win? I don’t think so," Burgess said. "They’d rather award contemporary artists, like Beyoncé trying on a cowboy hat this last year.

"Nominating The Beatles is like nominating Meryl Streep for best actress at the Oscars. She’s always nominated because she’s Meryl Streep, but she doesn’t usually win. But it gets these industry titans to the award show, right?"