Now and Then is a track that John Lennon demoed back in the late 1970s. Later, in the mid-90s, other band members Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison contributed to include the track in The Beatles' anthology project. However, due to technical limitations at the time, it was not possible to separate Lennon's vocals and piano from the original demo, which is why the track was released much later.
For many years, it was believed that it would not be possible to finish and release Now and Then, but in 2021, the project was completed with the help of director Peter Jackson and his sound team. They developed a machine learning technology that was able to isolate and clean up the various components of Lennon's recording.
The technology developed by Jackson and his team is quite different from generative artificial intelligence, which creates a sound that mimics the style and vocals of an artist. It did not add new sounds, but only helped to separate parts of the original recording for further use.
Despite the fact that after the song's release in 2023, debates about the use of artificial intelligence erupted on the Internet, McCartney said that no sound was created artificially or synthetically.
"To be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It’s all real and we all play on it," said McCartney, one of the co-founders of The Beatles.