"AI gives me the ability to experiment in ways I never imagined and provides me with new artistic freedom"

Yaki Gani, a member of the rock band Rockfour and an entrepreneur, took the stage at Calcalist and Bank Leumi’s Mind the Tech New York conference to demonstrate how he used artificial intelligence to create a music video in English. In the video, some of the world's greatest musicians perform one of his band’s most famous hits, Hole in the Moon, alongside him.

"I am an entrepreneur, but also a musician," Gani said. "I've been playing all styles of music since I was young. At 24, I joined the Israeli rock band Rockfour, and for the past 20 years, I’ve had the pleasure of traveling the world and performing in many places. Over the last two years, I’ve delved deep into the world of AI, exploring how it can impact music—both my own and that of others."

Gani described his mixed feelings about artificial intelligence: "To me, AI ranges from the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen to the most terrifying. But I wanted to explore its creative potential."

Bringing back musical legends with AI

Before moving on to a live demo, Gani explained his thought process: "Anyone familiar with artificial intelligence knows that if you have enough data, you can start having productive interactions with chat models like GPT. That got me thinking—could I do the same with people who are no longer alive? What if I could bring back legends like David Bowie or Frank Sinatra? I gathered all available data about them—movies, TV appearances, interviews—and fed it into an AI model. My logic was that AI could then generate something new. Maybe one day, we’ll wake up to discover that AI has created a ‘new’ Bowie song or that Amy Winehouse is performing again."

He then reflected on what this meant for musicians today: "What are our chances of success as artists in a world where AI can replicate and revive past legends? I asked myself what I, as a musician, could do with AI that no one else had done before. My childhood dream was to play with all the greats—to perform Bohemian Rhapsody with Freddie Mercury or jam with Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. So I took this as a challenge."

The process of creating an AI-powered music video

Gani detailed the technical process behind his AI-generated collaboration: "I started with Hole in the Moon, using GPT to translate the lyrics into English. After about an hour and a half of fine-tuning, I had a version I was happy with. That was step one. Then I asked myself—who would play with me?"

To achieve this, he used AI tools capable of isolating different elements of the original recording—guitar, drums, vocals, and more. Then, he turned to another AI model that allowed him to replace his own voice with that of any singer.

"I chose David Bowie—at a specific point in his career, since there were multiple options. I took the vocal tracks, fed them into another AI model that analyzes music videos, and overlaid them onto a digital recreation of Bowie. Suddenly, he was singing Hole in the Moon in English. It wasn’t perfect—I could tell it was artificial—but it moved me."

Building on that success, Gani expanded the project: "I then 'invited' other artists to join the music video. Next, I wanted Hendrix to play the guitar solo in the song—essentially replacing me in that role. I followed a similar AI-driven process, and so on. This technology gave me the ability to experiment in ways I never imagined and provided me with new artistic freedom."

Watch his full remarks in the video above.