The Grammy Awards are always good for some shocking moments and the 67th ceremony was no different.. and no, we're not talking about Ye!

The Beatles won their 8th Grammy this year for "Now and Then" as the Best Rock Performance. Great song and incredible accomplishment.

Its been 28 years since their previous win. And decades since the vocals, by the late John Lennon, were recorded in 1977. So how did The Beatles so called last single win a Grammy 40 years later?

AI in Now and Then's Music Production

In 1994, Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, gave the demo tape of the original recording of Now and Then to the surviving Beatles members - Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. The band attempted to complete the song in the mid-1990s but couldn't due to the poor quality of the original recording. Bummer!

Around 2021, new AI technology became available that can finish the incomplete song. The original vocals were extracted and improved with these AI tools. Giles Martin, son of Beatles producer George Martin and co-producer of "Now and Then," explained the process:

"Essentially, what the machine learning does is it recognizes someone's voice. So if you and I have a conversation and we're in a crowded room and there's a piano playing in the background, we can teach the AI what the sound of your voice, the sound of my voice, and it can extract those voices."

This process is called 'demixing,' the separation of vocals from the music, and any other sound, from a recording.

With Lennon's vocals isolated, McCartney and Starr were able to add new instrumental parts to the track. They used Harrison's guitar work from the 1995 sessions, finishing "Now and Then" the last song to feature all four Beatles.

Were AI Music Generators Used with Now and Then?

2023 was the year where making music became democratized and anyone can do it from a phone, sans Julliard degree. Generative AI is trained on existing content. In the case of ChatGPT, it was text. In the case of AI song generators and text to music apps, it was music. The result was anyone can create music that is royalty-free and AI-generated with a simple text prompt. Wow..

Back to The Beatles: how much artificial intelligence was used in the creation of Now and Then?

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.

- Sir Paul McCartney

Is AI Allowed in Music Creation for Grammy Awards?

For the purists, the question comes up of whether music tracks should not use AI of any kind.

According to the Recording Academy, works that feature elements of AI material are eligible in applicable categories. But only human creators are eligible to win and not AI-generated music. The use of AI in "Now and Then" was deemed approved within these guidelines, as it was used as an AI music tool to enhance existing recordings rather than generate music from scratch.

The Future: AI to Augment and Generate New Music

Think of all of the recent artists who've been discovered online: Justin Bieber, Post Malone, Juice Wrld to name a few. Think of how many other songwriters, drummers, DJs, singers and artists there are who just cannot put the finishing touches to produce music. AI to help?

How many unreleased bangers are sitting in recording vaults right now, waiting for this kind of technology to make them listenable? Imagine what could be done with unreleased Prince tracks, or those rumored David Bowie recordings?

Will this open the floodgates for more AI-assisted productions? Or will our streaming platforms be flooded with AI-generated slop?

Auto-Tune, digital mastering, drum machines—every era of music has embraced new tools to push boundaries. is artificial intelligence just the next phase? If music producers can use software to tweak a singer’s pitch or layer dozens of vocal takes into one seamless melody, is AI separating a voice from a piano track really all that different? Is AI-powered tools for music and sound effects wrong to use for a singer?

AI Music Generators: Good & Bad

Using AI song generators is, frankly, kind of amazing and fun. It can clean up old recordings, isolate vocals, and even help artists experiment with new sounds. While music generation is a powerful tool, it’s not a free pass to deceive audiences or impersonate real artists.

AI art is also.. art. Just like AI music is still music. It should just be transparent. Is it inconceivable that there will be a major musician who primary uses AI to make music?

Where the line gets crossed is when real artists' sound, voices, name and likeliness gets used without their permission.

We’ve already seen AI deepfakes mimic artists like Drake, The Weeknd, and Kanye West, producing songs they had no involvement in. Some of these tracks went viral, leaving fans confused; the scarier part is the songs were actually good!

When someone uses AI to create an unauthorized song featuring an artist’s voice, it’s more than just artificial intelligence—it’s theft. It hijacks an artist’s brand, image, and creative identity. Imagine if someone used AI to make a song with your voice, putting words in your mouth that you never said, or even worse, spreading messages you don’t support. That's defamation and fraud.

AI deepfakes can directly impact an artist’s earnings. If anyone can generate new "Drake" or "Ariana Grande" songs on demand, what happens to their real work? Labels, artists, and songwriters spend their lives creating art and building a brand, only to have AI mimic their style in minutes. AI generated songs attributed to real artists can devalue the real work of said artists.

If disclosures are not being made, whats left to do?

AI Detection for Audio and Voice

AI mimics real sounds and music.. but it is not real. Even if the human ear cannot hear something, it doesn't mean an AI can't. Similar to the sound that dolphins make that humans cannot hear, an AI can still detect that frequency. Same thing for distinguishing between AI or Not music.

Did The Beatles deserve the Grammy in 2025? Heck YES! Just like we're not in a rush to take early 2010s artists' plaques' for using auto-tune, we should view AI in the same light.

If AI is being used to expand human creativity, it is still human.