Will.i.am loves radio. And he’s convinced AI is the future
Musician, producer and entrepreneur Will.i.am believes that AI poses no threat to humanity unless it is run like social media companies, which he believes do not prioritize the public interest.
He also isn’t worried about AI taking his job, as he believes that creatives will always win.
“[AI] “AI is not going to outdo me or outdo Lil Wayne. And even if it did, it doesn’t know my pain that I’m rapping about … it’s not going to accurately describe my broken heart,” 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 believes 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 spoke to Will.i.am about a new venture he has in AI-powered radio called Raidio.fyi. He believes the format — featuring interactive AI personas — could change the way we consume audio content, in the same way that generative AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude have already changed the way we create and search for content. Meanwhile, AI interaction is moving into a new, more advanced phase, as we’re 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 fame with the Black Eyed Peas. He has experimented with wearables with products like the Puls smartband and the i.am+ Dial smartwatch. He has also launched products like a triangular backpack with speakers and a Photo.sosho iPhone case and is the founder of an AI-focused technology company i am+.
How Raidio.fyi Works
Raidio.fyi is an AI-powered interactive media platform that lets listeners chat with radio stations to ask questions about music or the stories behind songs, and to dive deeper 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 is part of FYI.AI, a messaging platform for the creative community, founded in 2022. Will.i.am is the CEO.
Once you’ve downloaded the FYI.AI app and signed up for an account, you’ll have access to nine radio stations under the AI tab. You can choose from one of four AI personas as your voice. The default voice is a British woman named Fyiona. All of the persona names begin with FYI, presumably as a nod to the parent app; Fyiera, Fyin, and Fyilip are the other options.
Even though I registered 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 stacks up against sources like The New York Times and The Washington Post, which have reported on tech companies Apple and Nvidia possibly investing in AI startup OpenAI, the arrest of Telegram’s founder in France, and Yelp suing Google.
Raidio.fyi’s science and technology station reported on the NASA and SpaceX Crew-9 mission that was supposed to take place in September and on research into long COVID at King’s College London. Fyiona was happy to skip over stories that didn’t interest me. When I asked specifically about AI news, she mentioned the OpenAI and Anthropic agreements have signed with the US government for security testing, but for some reason the images that came through also included a photo of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Will.i.am said that human journalists compile the news every day.
“Journalists do journalistic things and it’s these projects that work as a hyperprompt,” he said. “And that hyperprompt with credible stories, images … [enable] Radio.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 the broadcast network SiriusFM with an AI co-host. This helped sow the seeds for Raidio.fyi, which would theoretically allow anyone to “dial in” to the AI persona to talk about anything, a bit like a radio host opening the lines for callers.
The interactive component is what sets Raidio.fyi apart from other audio platforms like streaming. It can also pull in current events and, in a demo videoprovide advice on 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 would win the 2024 presidential election.
“Our target audience is people who like information and listen to music,” Will.i.am said. “It’s the same audience as people who listen to Hot 97, Power 106, Kiss FM.”
He is optimistic about the future of radio and believes that 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 aims to “have our system in every car that comes off the assembly line.”
That’s not necessarily a pipe dream. Automaker Mercedes is an FYI.AI investor. At CES in January, the two companies showed off a feature called Sound Drive, which provides an interactive in-car music experience. According to a press release, software makes the music respond to the way the car is being driven.
“By using a range 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 press release said.
Will.i.am said Sound Drive will be released “after September.” He hopes FYI.AI will strike deals with other car brands in the coming months.
As for the potential existential risks of artificial intelligence, which even some leading figures in the AI community are concerned about, Will.i.am is having none of it.
“AI is going to kill us for headlines or something — that’s 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 approach a new technology.”
