1 . The Beatles will release what is said to be their last ever song this week, pieced together from recordings spanning more than four decades and it would not have been possible without AI.

Now and Then has been edited together from a recording of the late John Lennon playing the piano and singing at his home in New York in 1979. Now, artificial intelligence has been used to extract usable sections from that noisy tape. These have been combined with guitar tracks from the late George Harrison, recorded in 1995 when efforts were made to finish the song. The endeavour was called off due to poor sound quality, which AI has now been able to solve.

Finally, new recordings made earlier this year from Paul McCartney and Ringo Start were added. McCartney has teased the existence of the song in interview s and said in a statement: “There it was, John’s voice, crystal clear. It’s quite emotional. And we all play on it, it’s a genuine Beatles recording. In 2023 to still be working on Beatles music, and about to release a new song the public haven’t heard, I think it’s an exciting thing.”

When creating Now and Then, AI is used to separate the dialogue from other noises to help editor s create a workable documentary. Ultimately, the engineers were able to develop bespoke AI powerful enough to remove all background noise and isolate not only speech but even the sound of each instrument played in a band.

Jess Aslan at University of London, says The Beatles’ track is an interesting experiment because it was done transparently with the blessing of the living members of the band, but adds that AI is a double-edged sword that also presents risks to artists. “One significant issue is that generative AI is squeezing the already extremely narrow creative job market,” she says. “Another is that of ownership, as these large-scale models are in fact bypassing copyright laws and using artists’ data without permission.”

2 . In the live-streaming (直播) channel of Yang Weiyun, no singing or dancing is performed nor are products sold. Yang teaches pinyin, reading and writing, something that has been most familiar to her for the past 50 years. The difference is her students are mostly adults.

The 73-year-old comes from Huainan city of Anhui province and is an experienced educator. She had been a Chinese teacher in an elementary school for 50 years. In retirement, Yang also wanted to do something meaningful. The rise of short video platforms gave her the idea of continuing her education attempt through live-streaming online. The retiree opened her live-streaming account in May 2021 and offered free pinyin courses designed for kindergarten pupils about to attend primary schools. However, she gradually learned among her viewers there are a lot of illiterate (文盲) adults.

Yang said she found many illiterate adults develop a sense of lack of confidence. They are afraid to go to new places, worried that they couldn’t teach their children or read their boss’s instructions. So, she added targeted content to meet their needs. “Many illiterate adults didn’t have the chance to go to school when they were young. They are the ones in urgent need of becoming literate. I wanted to give them a new starting point,” Yang said.

According to the seventh national census (人口普查) carried out last year, there are 38 million illiterate adults in China. Yang’s live-streaming channel offers an easy and private way for those who want to overcome adult illiteracy.

Yang said students learning through her live-streaming channel each have their own demands. So she always prepares her classes carefully after concluding a live-streaming session. She has tried her best to figure out what ways the students can learn and remember better, and her biggest wish now is to see these students graduate from her classes.

What are the Olympic Games?

The modern Olympic Games, also called the Olympics, are     1     international athletic competition of sporting events between athletes representing their country.

There are two related but separate events     2     (call) the Olympic Games,     3     are usually called the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics. The Winter Games feature winter sports,     4     (include) figure skating, skiing, snowboarding, and many others. The Summer Games feature traditionally warm weather and indoor sports, like track and field, swimming, and basketball, among many others.

The Olympic Games are sometimes referred to as the Olympiad or the Games of the Olympiad, often with the number of the current event. For example, the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo will be known as the Games of the XXXII Olympiad. The event is also     5     (common) referred to with the name of the host city, as in the Tokyo Olympics. Athletes who compete     6     the Olympic Games are called Olympians.

At the Olympic Games, the top three finishers in each event     7     (award) Olympic medals: gold for first place, silver for     8     (two) place, and bronze for third place. Because the Olympic Games often feature the     9    (good) athletes in the world, winning a medal-or even competing-in them is considered one of the highest athletic     10     (achieve).