The Grammy Awards Make a Historic Breakthrough: The Beatles' new song "Now and Then," completed with the help of AI technology, has successfully been nominated for both "Record of the Year" and "Best Rock Performance," marking the first AI-assisted song to receive a Grammy nomination.
This widely-discussed piece was released at the end of last year and has a legendary creation story. Contrary to the common speculation about deepfake AI technology, the band actually used an AI technique called "stem separation" to successfully extract the vocals of the late member John Lennon from a low-quality recording made 60 years ago.
This technology has been applied multiple times in the music production field. For example, the last song on singer SZA's album "SOS" used this technology to improve the audio quality of Ol' Dirty Bastard's samples. Although the "SOS" album received multiple Grammy nominations, the song "Forgiveless," which used stem separation technology, did not make the cut.
"Now and Then's" nomination is significant. It not only showcases the positive role of AI technology in music creation but also sets a new milestone for the music industry's use of AI technology. This breakthrough may encourage more musicians to explore innovative applications of AI technology in music creation.