AI adds Jeff Beck to Rolling Stones music video

Artificial intelligence is often presented as a marvel of convenience, yet when put to the test in the creative arena, its reliability can prove surprisingly fragile. This lesson was recently learned the hard way by the Rolling Stones, who discovered that even the most advanced deepfake technology can introduce some delightfully confounding errors.

In a recent video project for their new single from the Foreign Tongues album, the band opted to use AI to de-age themselves, portraying them as their younger selves performing the track. The vision was slick and nostalgic, leveraging digital manipulation to achieve a striking visual effect.

However, the technical execution encountered an unexpected hitch when sourcing the necessary footage for the transformation. As the process unfolded, the AI, in its pursuit of creating realistic faces, introduced a startling substitution into the band lineup: guitarist Jeff Beck appeared where Ronnie Wood should have been.

The source material proved to be the crux of the confusion. Since Ronnie Wood did not officially join the Stones until 1975, the team had to pull footage from his earlier projects, including his time in the Jeff Beck Group in the late 1960s. This ambiguity caused the AI to mistakenly insert the wrong musician into the frame.

The creative team was immediately aware of the mishap during production and quickly intervened. The process, which involved remote collaboration, demanded sharp focus. During a discussion on the podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Mick Jagger recounted the moment they spotted the error.

“We were talking with the lady that I’m working with on the video,” Jagger explained. “They’re doing this AI, and I said, ‘Stop it at 3:18!’ We’re on a Zoom. I said, ‘Stop it at 3:18!’ I said, ‘That’s Jeff Beck! That’s not your guy!'”

The realization that the AI had placed Beck in the band—when Ronnie Wood was the intended subject—led to an immediate course correction. The team pulled back, acknowledging that while the technology could generate convincing faces, it still required human oversight to ensure historical and factual accuracy.

Ultimately, this incident serves as a humorous reminder: even when harnessing the power of artificial intelligence for cinematic effects, the crucial element remains human intuition and keen attention. The Stones successfully navigated the deepfake maze, ensuring that their video remained authentically theirs, proving that sometimes, the most interesting errors are the ones we manage to correct.