Musician, producer and entrepreneur Will.i.am doesn't think AI is a threat to humanity -- unless it's run like businesses in the social media industry, which he says haven't prioritized the public good.
He's not worried about AI coming for his job either, as he believes creatives will always prevail.
"[AI] isn't going to outrap me or Lil Wayne. And, even if it does, it doesn't know my pain that I'm rapping about … it's not going to tell exactly my heartbreak," he said in an interview with CNET on Thursday. "AI is not going to perform. AI is not going to sweat. It's not going to give you a monologue. It's not going to do any of that."
He does think AI has the power to revolutionize radio, a media format still used by 86% of Americans aged 12 and older, according to the Pew Research Center.
I was talking with Will.i.am about a new venture he has in AI-powered radio called Raidio.fyi. He believes the format -- with interactive AI personas -- can change the way we consume audio content, much like generative AI chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude have already affected content creation and search.
Interacting with AI, meanwhile, is moving into a new and more advanced phases, as we're now seeing with features like Gemini Live and ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode.
This is far from the first entrepreneurial venture for Will.i.am, who rose to prominence with the Black Eyed Peas. He has dabbled in wearables with products such as the Puls smartband and the i.am Plus Dial smartwatch. He has also launched products like a triangular backpack with speakers and a Foto.sosho iPhone case and is the founder of AI-focused tech company i.am Plus.
How Raidio.fyi works
Raidio.fyi is an AI-powered interactive media platform that allows you to chat with radio stations to ask about music or the stories behind songs and dive further into topics like news, sports and culture. The music station plays rap, hip hop and pop from artists like GloRilla and Sabrina Carpenter, but you can also make requests..
It's part of FYI.AI, a messaging platform for the creative community, which was founded in 2022. Will.i.am is the CEO.
After you download the FYI.AI app and sign up for an account, you can access nine radio stations under the AI tab. You can choose from one of four AI personas as the voice. The default voice is a British female named Fyiona. All of the persona names start with FYI, presumably as a nod to the parent app: Fyiera, Fyin and Fyilip are the other options.
Even though I signed up as Lisa, Fyiona kept calling me ~Lisa, which she pronounced, "Tilde Lisa."
I was curious about technology news and how Raidio.fyi's presentation of it compared to sources like The New York Times and The Washington Post, which highlighted tech companies Apple and Nvidia potentially investing in AI startup OpenAI, the arrest of Telegram's founder in France and Yelp suing Google.
Raidio.fyi's science and technology station covered the NASA and SpaceX Crew-9 mission coming up in September and research into long COVID at London's King's College. Fyiona was happy to skip over stories I wasn't interested in. When I asked about AI news specifically, she talked about the agreements OpenAI and Anthropic have signed with the US government for safety testing, but the images that cycled through included a photo of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for some reason.
Will.i.am said human journalists curate the news daily.
"Journalists are doing journalism stuff and it's these projects that are acting like a hyper prompt," he said. "And that hyper prompt with credible stories, images … [enable] Raidio.FYI [to present the content] in the form of radio."
From AI co-host to AI personas
In January, Will.i.am debuted a new show on broadcast network SiriusFM with an AI co-host. This helped sow the seeds for Raidio.fyi, which would theoretically allow anyone to "call in" to the AI persona to talk about anything, sort of like a radio host opening up the lines for callers.
The interactive component is what distinguishes Raidio.fyi from other audio platforms like streaming. It's also able to pull in current events and, in a demo video, offer advice about where to buy Fenty Beauty products in Boston. In a segment on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Monday, Raidio.fyi even predicted who will win the 2024 presidential election.
"Our target audience is folks that love information and listen to music," Will.i.am said. "It's the same target audience as folks that listen to Hot 97, Power 106, Kiss FM."
He's bullish on radio's future and believes listeners want a deeper relationship with the content. His dream is for radio as a whole to evolve into this interactive format.
AI in your car
Will.i.am also aspires to "have our system in every single car that hits the road off the assembly line."
That's not necessarily a pipe dream. Auto manufacturer Mercedes is an FYI.AI investor. At CES in January, the two companies previewed a feature called Sound Drive, which delivers an interactive in-car music experience. According to a press release, software allows music to react to the way the car is being driven.
"Utilizing a suite of sensors and advanced software, [Sound Drive] interprets various driving dynamics -- such as recuperation, acceleration, steering and braking -- and converts them into musical expressions, allowing the driver to 'compose' in real-time," the release said.
Will.i.am said Sound Drive will be released "after September." In the coming months, he hopes FYI.AI will strike deals with other car brands.
As for the potential for existential risks from artificial intelligence, which worries even some prominent figures in the AI community, Will.i.am isn't having it.
"AI killing us off someday for headlines or whatever -- that is to get people's attention," he said. "I don't think that's the case. I just think that's a very loose, irresponsible way to go about a new technology."