By AFP

The Beatles’ new song, produced thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), is on track to become Britain’s best-selling song, according to the Official Charts organization which collects data on the most popular songs.

“Now and then”, composed by John Lennon in 1978completed by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and with the help of AI, chords by George Harrison are included.

The song was released on Thursday and is on track to become the best-selling song when the official list of most popular music is announced next Friday, according to the Official Charts.

“‘Now And Then’ debuted at number 42 in the UK last week after just 10 hours of sales, but is now expected to jump 41 spots to number one on the Official Singles Chart” when the chart is announced on Friday, the organization said.

It was the band’s eighteenth number one single. The last time was in 1969 with the song “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, shortly before the group disbanded in April 1970.

Despite the hype before its release, “Now and Then” received lukewarm reviews.

McCartney, 81, announced the release of the song in June, billing it as “the final Beatles song”.

“Now and Then” is one of those songs Lennon recorded it on cassette at his residence in New York in 1979, a year before he was murdered.

Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, He gave the recording to McCartney in 1994.

The other two songs, “Free as a bird” and “True love“, was rescued by producer Jeff Lynne and released in 1995 and 1996, but the “Now and Then” recordings had too much ambient noise and until the development of AI technology could not yet be exploited commercially.