Exclusive: will.i.am on AI, the future of creativity, and new AI apps to “co-pilot” creations

The epitome of the Renaissance man, will.i.am (real name William Adams Jr.) is a prolific singer, songwriter, rapper, actor, producer, DJ, entrepreneur and philanthropist with a future in his hat. Added another feather, the ideologist.

And his latest effort is another testament to his forward thinking.

Founder and lead member of The Black Eyed Peas, he launched FYI (Focus Your Idea), billed as “the first productivity tool designed to serve creatives first.” launched.

The FYI app is designed to help creatives with AI-powered “creative copilots”, chat with collaborators and team members, share photos, videos, audio files, documents, protect data, and much more. Designed. It features state-of-the-art end-to-end encryption. “

Jonathan Mildenhall, former Chief Marketing Officer of Airbnb and current CEO of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, said he is particularly excited about the launch of FYI because it has a similar founding story to Airbnb. increase.

Airbnb founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were inspired to create a residential rental platform when they were faced with sudden increases in apartment rents in New York City. To overcome financial challenges, they decided to rent out a spare bedroom, creating an idea that would revolutionize the way people travel.

Similarly, faced with the restrictions imposed by the pandemic and the lack of suitable tools for remote creative collaboration, Will decided to take matters into his own hands and embarked on a mission to find solutions. rice field. The answer was just for reference.

Products made out of necessity “are a gift to the world,” says Mildenhall, who is formulating FYI’s brand strategy.

In the context of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Euronews spoke to will.i.am about the possibilities and implications of the future of AI, music and creativity.

Camille Bello, Euronews: Will, who do you think uses FYI?

will.i.am: “Before FYI existed, the creative community worked in six different tools. We were on WhatsApp. To work on WhatsApp, you need Dropbox. Files are too big. If you need to WeTransfer, but if you can’t open it in WhatsApp, you need to Wetransfer to email, you need email, you need calendar, you need Zoom, then chatGPT You will need.

In short, creatives need seven things to work remotely while on the phone. FYI, you need one tool called FYI.

A key ideal customer is someone who is highly creative, someone who comes up with ideas and puts together teams or small teams. And with AI, small teams become big teams. “

CBs: Just for reference, what’s the difference with other language models like ChatGPT?

will.i.am: “For reference, first messenger. This is messenger for file management and digital asset management storage. [All] Because why should you keep conversations about your digital assets and projects you’re working on separate from your team and communication planning strategy?

In other words, messenger digital asset management file storage. It’s a generative AI for calendars, music organizers, and team flows.

This is the messenger that helps you in terms of project-based collaboration, project-based ideation, and AI implementation. “

CBs: FYI, can you tell me about the algorithm behind it?

will.i.am: “I want to talk about the work we do with IBM when it comes to the business of creativity.”

At this point, if you’re creative and have an idea you want to get started with but want to protect that idea before implementing it, reach out to people. It is impossible.

“[Especially] If you are from the inner city, or if you are from the countryside, or if you live in the suburbs.

And so on and so on – in the near future, thanks to our collaboration with IBM and WatsonX, we will be able to create a thread and invite FYI business agents to create an NDA to protect their ideas. Don’t worry about how to do it. Find an attorney or hire one to cover the basics: protect your creation while you do it, and cover the costs of doing business.

We’ll start with a basic NDA idea for protection, intellectual property protection, and grow from there.

And we invite the creative community to travel with us. The overall premise of this product is to protect creatives and their IP and data by defending and supporting creatives and working with IBM to issue elliptic curve cryptography keys to ensure everything is protected. That’s it. Soup on nuts. “

CBs: In response to Drake’s fake track, trip-hop collective Massive Attack tweeted, “Is the debate about ‘Should AI recreate music? Or is it a debate about why contemporary music is so homogenized, stereotyped, and so easily copied?

CBs: what do you think of that

will.i.am: “To get good at something, you have to reference and copy something. And AI is already great at imitating paintings, illustrations, marketing plans, strategies… You can also

I’ve heard great music made by AI that I wrote, music that sounded like me, and made by me that I’m sure I sang. And it wasn’t a reproduction of anything. It was from scratch. And it will get even better. how do i feel about that? I feel that there is an urgent need to develop regulations regarding the essence and the likeness of things.

I urge all those working in the AI ​​field, those involved in governance and regulation, and those setting protocols to protect people and humanity. Essence and similarity matter… fighting for peoples similarity, peoples essence, fighting for peoples and their civil liberties, and peoples protection. community. That’s what we should do. We are not saying regulation to stop innovation. What we are saying is that it is a regulation on people. “

CBs: Do you think it’s a little premature to introduce artificial intelligence before there are real regulations in place that we should follow?

will.i.am: “That’s hard to say. That’s like saying there was a Ministry of Motor Vehicles (DMV) when the automobile was invented. It’s like saying that the FAA existed, the answer is no, but now that the skies are flying and the cars are on the roads, the Department of Motor Vehicles and the FAA are the people and the people. I think the time has come to ensure the safety of the communities where we live.”

CBs: You have a multicultural background. Worried about algorithm bias?

will.i.am: “The only way to deal with bias is to have different communities and people from different backgrounds train on data and create algorithms. That’s why I have a school and program in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, called “todos los mexicanos de mi barrio.” We teach them computer science, robotics, and programming so they can grow up and get the jobs they need to meet their challenges. Data, Bias, Algorithmic Bias. That’s my core passion.

You too can step out and help companies address these biases. Alternatively, you can go out and work, go to school, and encourage your children to follow this path.

And to the people working in the field, they’re not malicious, they don’t want people of color training their models. Not every school has a computer science program, but every school has a basketball program, a football program, a soccer program, but there is no engineering or algorithmic programming or data, so it’s set from the beginning by the school system and zoning. It has been. Mandatory training programs in all schools, urban, rural, poor, underdeveloped and underserved areas.

Were they the ones who created the model of “Mwahaha”, “I won’t do it”, and “I don’t want to do it”? No, it’s not. There is an engineering gap.

The world needs more engineers. Where do engineers come from?

Now there is engineering for engineering’s sake. Algorithms exist today that can be designed for us, but they still cannot address data bias or algorithm bias. So the only real way, as I said, is to have colored, black, brown, female, transgender, gay, LGBTQ, plus train models and create algorithms. It’s the only way. I started working with her 65 children 12 years before him.Now in Los Angeles he serves 14,000 students

I am implementing a STEM program in the inner city. That seems like something to do. why? because they don’t. And when there are no STEM programs in the inner city, there is data bias, algorithm bias. “

CBs: Are you worried about a future where machines do all the creative and fun work, and humans just give instructions to them?

will.i.am: “No, because I believe in human creativity, spontaneity, curiosity and competitiveness.

Just as calculators outperform mathematicians, that doesn’t mean people don’t do math. That doesn’t mean people aren’t building structures or using advanced mathematical models. people still think. People are still trying to solve the problem. It’s just a great tool. But that doesn’t stop our innovative spirit, ingenuity, and invention.

The word “innovation” is used in pop culture these days. “Invention” has not been said or talked about for a long time. This new Renaissance will provoke new inventions, not innovations. This next leap is like we invent something. We don’t just innovate. “