Layered Reality, a British immersive entertainment company, has unveiled a new initiative called “Elvis Evolution” that employs artificial intelligence (AI) to bring back the legendary rock and roll icon Elvis Presley for live performances. This immersive experience uses holographic projections of Elvis generated through thousands of personal photos and home videos, offering fans a virtual journey through Elvis’s life, from his Mississippi hometown and Graceland estate to iconic Las Vegas performances. The “crescendo” of the experience will feature Elvis’s “live” AI performance.
Layered Reality’s CEO, Andrew McGuinness, shared in an interview with Reuters that the show is set to premiere in London in November and will subsequently travel to other cities, including Las Vegas, Berlin, and Tokyo. The use of AI in recreating iconic figures for performances has been a growing trend, with the Beatles’ “last song,” titled “Now and Then,” released by Universal Music Group in November 2023 using AI to reproduce John Lennon’s vocal track.
Layered Reality’s initiative follows other musicians’ forays into AI usage, with Grimes, a popular musician and producer, endorsing AI technology. Grimes announced in April 2023 that she would split 50% of the royalties with creators using AI to generate music with her vocals. She also launched her own open-source software program, elf.tech, dedicated to legally replicating her voice with AI for music creation.
However, the use of AI in replicating performers has not been universally embraced. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strike that disrupted Hollywood for 118 days included negotiations around defining and establishing coverage for the creation, use, and alteration of “digital replicas” of performers. While a deal was eventually reached, concerns persist in Hollywood about the potential impact of AI replication on work opportunities and the use of performers’ likenesses in the future.
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