AI & music ethics: should tech be used to resurrect dead artists? | [Video]

Last year, the surviving Beatles released their ‘last song’ by using AI to complete the track Now and Then. It clearly grabbed the attention of the media, not least due to the fact that the release of Now and Then came during the time the hype over nascent AI technology, notably ChatGPT, was at its peak. Of course, the release drew criticism, too. 

In truth, Get Back director Peter Jackson, who was largely responsible for the resurrection of the track, trod carefully when it came to ethics. The technology was used to extract John Lennon’s voice from old demo tapes rather than mimic the former Beatles’ vocals. Yet, it also posed questions of how far the technology would go in resurrecting the dead. 

Thus far, AI has broadly been used ethically when treating with artists who have passed on, or at least it has been ethical in commercial releases. Elvis Presley had similar treatment to John …