If you'd like to know how it's all going with artificial intelligence, you can now listen to a version of Led Zeppelin II that sounds like it was made in the 1950s

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By ( Classic Rock ) published

And we still don't have personal jetpacks

The Led Zeppelins - AI generated image
(Image credit: marceve76)

According to data company SimilarWeb, which compiles statistics related to global website traffic, artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT is now the eighth most popular website on the internet. It launched just two years ago, but is already more widely used than Reddit, Yahoo! and amazon.com. In other words, AI is here to stay.

It's a brave new world. AI can analyse medical images at enormous speed and detect problems that might be missed by a human. It can transform farming efficiency by predicting weather changes, monitoring soil conditions, optimising fertiliser and water use, and assessing crop health. And, rather less usefully, it can take Led Zeppelin II and reimagine it as if it had been made in 1954 rather than 1969.

Quite what Jimmy Page makes of this technological "advance" is unknown, but the "The Led Zeppelins" and their like are probably here to stay, especially if their creator, the mysterious marceve76, has anything to do with it. For this is merely the latest of his artificially augmented projects.

First up, he/she took Deep Purple's fabled In Rock and gave it a 1950s makeover. Next up, Kiss's Dynasty, reimagined as a collection of finely-crafted country songs. Not satisfied with that, he/she took Rainbow's mighty Rising album and gave that a 1950s spin. And now it's Led Zeppelin's turn.

To be fair to marceve76, the results are pretty good. Whole Lotta Love is bouncier than it ever has been. Heartbreaker is similarly so. And Moby Dick probably benefits from the omission of that pesky drum solo.

Where this will end is anyone's guess, so we may as well take a stab. Bob Marley's classic Rastaman Vibration, but sung by Freddie Mercury. The first Manowar album, but with a Mutt Lange production. Bohemian Rhapsody, reimagined as doo-wop. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but good.

We will, of course, keep you abreast of further developments.

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Fraser Lewry
Fraser Lewry
Online Editor, Classic Rock

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.