After centring his movie around artificial intelligence (AI) earlier this year, Jack Neo has utilised the technology again to celebrate National Day with a song.

The 65-year-old local director uploaded a music video for his song titled We Are Singapore on Instagram yesterday (Aug 18). While he wrote the lyrics himself, he said the tune and the vocals were done by AI. The music video also appears to be created with the latter.

The video features scenes from the National Day Parade this year, historical clips of Singapore, and AI-generated images of Singaporeans celebrating together as well as of local politicians and the late Lee Kuan Yew.

Jack wrote in the caption: "Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's speech yesterday (at the National Day Rally) once again reminded us of the importance for Singaporeans to be united. With that in mind, I want to share with everyone a belated patriotic song for SG60. Although this is not released on National Day, but August is always a celebratory month for us, so this gift is not considered late."

The upbeat celebratory track also features images of AI singers bearing an uncanny resemblance to local celebrities including Jack, Terence Cao, Collin Chee, Asher Su, Dawn Yeoh and Tang Miaoling.

There is also a scene where many local politicians — including PM Wong, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Deputy PM Gan Kim Yong, Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung — are AI-generated to be clapping to Jack's song.

Jack added in his post that he likes composing song lyrics and dedicated his song as a "confession" to Singapore.

"Along the way, we've witnessed different generations... Every generation has its own experiences and memories. So, I spent some time perfecting the lyrics, hoping that the shared memories it encompasses is beautiful," he wrote.

He also shared that he "leveraged on technology" to complete the melody and vocals for the song.

Jack wrote: "Songwriting has changed, and the real challenge now lies in screening and determining which songs will resonate most deeply to audiences. This is an art form, and even more so, an analysis of the market and audience.

"Starting from this year's Chinese New Year film, I've come to a profound realisation. In this generation, those who like music but don't understand it needn't worry. They can also realise their songwriting dreams. With a little more time, they can even create a grand scene without filming."

In an interview this January for his movie I Want To Be Boss, Jack shared with the media, including AsiaOne, that the nine soundtracks in his movie were composed by AI and some of the footage, especially in the end credits, were also created by AI.

Towards the end of the music video, the late Lee Kuan Yew made an appearance to wish Singapore a happy birthday.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jack Neo Ck (@jackneock)

[[nid:721489]]

yeo.shuhui@asiaone.com

No part of this article can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.