Will.i.am Loves Radio. And He is Satisfied AI Is Its Future

Musician, producer and entrepreneur Will.i.am does not assume AI is a menace to humanity — except it is run like companies within the social media trade, which he says have not prioritized the general public good.

He isn’t frightened about AI coming for his job both, as he believes creatives will all the time prevail.

“[AI] is not going to outrap me or Lil Wayne. And, even when it does, it does not know my ache that I am rapping about … it is not going to inform precisely my heartbreak,” he stated in an interview with CNET on Thursday. “AI just isn’t going to carry out. AI just isn’t going to sweat. It isn’t going to offer you a monologue. It isn’t going to do any of that.”

He does assume AI has the facility to revolutionize radio, a media format nonetheless utilized by 86% of People ages 12 and older, in response to the Pew Analysis Middle.

I used to be speaking with Will.i.am a few new enterprise he has in AI-powered radio referred to as Raidio.fyi. He believes the format — with interactive AI personas — can change the best way we devour audio content material, very like generative AI chatbots similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude have already affected content material creation and search. Interacting with AI, in the meantime, is transferring into a brand new and extra superior phases, as we’re now seeing with options like Gemini Stay and ChatGPT’s Superior Voice Mode.

That is removed from the primary entrepreneurial enterprise for Will.i.am, who rose to prominence with the Black Eyed Peas. He has dabbled in wearables with merchandise just like the Puls smartband and the i.am+ Dial smartwatch. He has additionally launched merchandise like a triangular backpack with audio system and a Foto.sosho iPhone case and is the founding father of AI-focused tech firm i.am+.

How Raidio.fyi works

Raidio.fyi is an AI-powered interactive media platform that enables listeners to speak with radio stations to ask about music or the tales behind songs and dive additional into subjects like information, sports activities and tradition. The music station performs rap, hip hop and pop from artists like GloRilla and Sabrina Carpenter, however you can even make requests..

It is a part of FYI.AI, a messaging platform for the artistic group, which was based in 2022. Will.i.am is the CEO.

After you obtain the FYI.AI app and join an account, you may entry 9 radio stations beneath the AI tab. You possibly can select from one in all 4 AI personas because the voice. The default voice is a British feminine named Fyiona. The entire persona names begin with FYI, presumably as a nod to the dad or mum app: Fyiera, Fyin and Fyilip are the opposite choices.

Despite the fact that I signed up as Lisa, Fyiona stored calling me ~Lisa, which she pronounced, “Tilde Lisa.”

I used to be interested in expertise information and the way Raidio.FYI’s presentation of it in comparison with sources like The New York Occasions and The Washington Submit, which highlighted tech corporations Apple and Nvidia probably investing in AI startup OpenAI, the arrest of Telegram’s founder in France and Yelp suing Google.

Raidio.fyi’s science and expertise station coated the NASA and SpaceX Crew-9 mission developing in September and analysis into lengthy COVID at London’s King’s Faculty. Fyiona was blissful to skip over tales I wasn’t curious about. Once I requested about AI information particularly, she talked in regards to the agreements OpenAI and Anthropic have signed with the US authorities for security testing, however the photographs that cycled via included a photograph of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for some purpose.

Will.i.am stated human journalists curate the information each day.

“Journalists are doing journalism stuff and it is these tasks which might be appearing like a hyper immediate,” he stated. “And that hyper immediate with credible tales, photographs … [enable] Raidio.FYI [to present the content] within the type of radio.”

From AI co-host to AI personas

In January, Will.i.am debuted a brand new present on broadcast community SiriusFM with an AI co-host. This helped sow the seeds for Raidio.fyi, which might theoretically permit anybody to “name in” to the AI persona to speak about something, kind of like a radio host opening up the strains for callers.

The interactive element is what distinguishes Raidio.fyi from different audio platforms like streaming. It is also in a position to pull in present occasions and, in a demo video, supply recommendation about the place to purchase Fenty Magnificence merchandise in Boston. In a section on The Tonight Present with Jimmy Fallon on Monday, Raidio.fyi even predicted who will win the 2024 presidential election.

“Our audience is people that love data and hearken to music,” Will.i.am stated. “It is the identical audience as people that hearken to Scorching 97, Energy 106, Kiss FM.”

He is bullish on radio’s future and believes listeners need a deeper relationship with the content material. His dream is for radio as a complete to evolve into this interactive format.

AI in your automobile

Will.i.am additionally aspires to “have our system in each single automobile that hits the street off the meeting line.”

That is not essentially a pipe dream. Auto producer Mercedes is an FYI.AI investor. At CES in January, the 2 corporations previewed a characteristic referred to as Sound Drive, which delivers an interactive in-car music expertise. In response to a press launch, software program permits music to react to the best way the automobile is being pushed.

“Using a collection of sensors and superior software program, [Sound Drive] interprets numerous driving dynamics — similar to recuperation, acceleration, steering, and braking — and converts them into musical expressions, permitting the motive force to ‘compose’ in real-time,” the discharge stated.

Will.i.am stated Sound Drive shall be launched “after September.” Within the coming months, he hopes FYI.AI will strike offers with different automobile manufacturers.

As for the potential for existential dangers from synthetic intelligence, which worries even some distinguished figures within the AI group, Will.i.am is not having it.

“AI killing us off sometime for headlines or no matter — that’s to get folks’s consideration,” he stated. “I do not assume that is the case. I simply assume that is a really unfastened, irresponsible option to go a few new expertise.”