'Final Beatles song...with a little help from AI friends

SIR Paul McCartney will unveil "the final Beatles record", using artificial intelligence to add John Lennon's voice from more than 40 years ago.

- Chris Riches

McCartney said he used technology to "extricate" his old bandmate's vocals to finally complete the song.

He did not name the track but it is thought to be a 1978 composition called Now and Then.

McCartney said: "We just finished it up and it'll be released this year." Lennon, who was murdered in 1980, had recorded a series of lo-fi tracks on just a boombox while sitting at a piano in his New York apartment.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, McCartney, 80, said the songs, on a cassette labelled "for Paul", had been sent to him by Lennon's widow Yoko Ono in 1994.