Technology

Billy Joel's New Music Video Uses AI To Turn Back Time, But Something Doesn't Look Right

Cover art for Billy Joel song Billy Joel
By Nadeem Sarwar/

The music industry's love affair with AI continues, and this time around, it's none other than piano legend Billy Joel. The singer's latest track, "Turn the Lights Back On," is his first solo performance in 17 years. Fittingly, Joel performed the song for the first time at the Grammy Awards earlier this month in his signature soulful voice and ended the performance with a standing ovation. But it's the music video for his comeback track that is now making waves.

That's because the track is an AI-assisted video montage that takes us through the four definitive phases of the singer's professional career. The video was produced with help from an AI startup named Deep Voodoo, which has previously worked with contemporary heavyweights like Kendrick Lamar and Dua Lipa. The video, which was released last Friday, beautifully showcases Billy's performance of "Famous Last Words," the final track from his 1993 pop record "River of Dreams."

It starts with an opening shot of the musical score, followed by Billy singing on a desolate theater stage. Throughout the video, Billy gracefully transitions between his '70s, '80s, and '90s appearances, before returning to his current look. The conclusion of the video features authentic footage of Billy over the decades. It's a wonderful tribute to his journey as an artist. Joel isn't the only musician in the AI game. Canadian singer Grimes says she is okay with profit-sharing AI-generated music using her voice.

It's actually a double whammy

This won't be the first time that the entertainment industry has played with AI, but in Joel's case, he became an unsuspecting victim prior to his nostalgia-heavy music video dropping. Merely days before Joel appeared on the Grammy stage, the Houston Fox-owned station played a song that was claimed to be Joel's latest track. However, it turned out to be an AI-generated track that was trained on Joel's voice, and the lyrics were also written by AI software. "Joel took 17 years to write that song and we took an hour," said one of the podcasters behind the stunt. Joel has yet to comment on the drama that unfolded before his real song was officially released.

Joel's music video is a look into the beautiful things that can come out of AI deployment, and all the perils that come with it. Disney recently revealed an AI tool called FRAN that can de-age or accelerate the aging effect on an actor's face with uncanny accuracy and a natural feel to it. In the Marvel blockbuster "Captain America: Civil War," we got a look at a de-aged Robert Downey Jr. with a clean-shaved wrinkle-free face. But the same behemoth that is Marvel also courted flak for using AI to create artwork for one of its TV shows at the cost of risking creative artists' jobs.

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