AI has truly exploded onto the scene at the World Economic Forum, making its way into almost every conversation about the future of almost every industry. Music is certainly one of the many industries that will benefit from AI, including the way its broadcasted. Grammy Award-winning musician and entrepreneur Will.i.am announced a new radio show he will be co-hosting with an AI co-host.
Will.i.am joins Yahoo Finance Anchors Brian Sozzi and Julie Hyman at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to discuss all things AI from its involvement in the music industry to regulations.
Will.i.am points out a drawback to AI and what Americans need to pay attention to: "The way to really educate people on where we are, especially this election year, you have to ask the question, 'am I talking to a person or not?' That call that I had, was that real person? I mean, it looked like a real person but, was it? That's the unfortunate reality that we are in right now. We have dupe machines, machines that know how to mimic really well. Machines that know how to create. The public needs to know that its' creating and mimicking everything that we've ever done and it does it in a really fascinating way."
This interview is part of Yahoo Finance's exclusive coverage from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where our team will speak to top decision-makers as well as preeminent leaders in business, finance, and politics about the world’s most pressing issues and priorities for the coming year.Watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live here.
BRIAN SOZZI: Good amount of AI talk here at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Really, let's talk to someone I think is very out in front of the all things AI trends. That's Will.i.am, futurist, investor, just all around good guy. Will.i.am, good to see you again.
WILL.I.AM: Appreciate you guys.
BRIAN SOZZI: Well, last year, you spent about 30 minutes with us here at Davos. And you were looking at a new AI app and like really, honestly, just blowing our minds, me and Julie. What's next? Like what is just exciting you to the point that you want to tell the world in AI?
WILL.I.AM: A new project that I just launched with Mercedes called Sound Drive that utilizes AI that transforms how we listen to music while we commute, taking the sensors from the electric car, aiming those sensors at a sound generation engine that we created at Sound Drive, built by FYI. So that when a driver drives, they're creating music just by driving. The suspension is altering the music, the steering wheel, the acceleration, the accelerometers, the gyros, the GPS, and you're just creating as you commute.
BRIAN SOZZI: So if I go over a bump, what-- like the sound goes up?
WILL.I.AM: The music's going to bump, my bro.
[LAUGHS]
That's the whole fun of the bump, my bro. And then, I just announced this-- my first time doing radio. I have my own radio show on Sirius XM, and my co-host is an AI. And so that's--
JULIE HYMAN: Like how does that work? I saw that announcement. What exactly does that mean? If I tune in to the radio show, I'm going to hear you and I'm going to hear whatever the name of the AI is. And you'll be having conversations?
WILL.I.AM: Like we are now. Deep conversation on any subject. Real time. Analytical fun. Yeah, it's amazing.
BRIAN SOZZI: How rehearsing--
WILL.I.AM: You don't even have to rehearse.
JULIE HYMAN: And so how do you train that AI to be able to have those kinds of conversations with you?
WILL.I.AM: It's trained on the world's information. So real time information, historic information. And when you push it and you know-- you have context on what you're talking about and you catch it in a slip or a hallucination, you can push it.
And I think that's the way to really educate people on where we are. Especially this election year, you have to ask the question, am I talking to a person or not? That caller that I had, is that a real person? I mean it looked like a real person, but was it?
That's the unfortunate reality that we're in right now. We have dupe machines, machines that know how to mimic really well, machines that know how to create. And the public needs to know that it's creating and mimicking everything that we've ever done. And it does it in a really fascinating way, but it's not creating. It's just a regurgitation of our genius, our collective knowledge.
BRIAN SOZZI: Is that one of the biggest downside risks you see to AI?
WILL.I.AM: No, biggest downside risks that I see in AI is the lack of regulation. For example, I love to drive. Sound Drive-- going back to my partnership with Mercedes. So I love to drive.
But to drive that car, to operate that vehicle, I had to take a driver's test. I have a license. I'm licensed to drive. And Mercedes as a company, and every car company, they follow certain regulations-- emissions, safety, right, airbags, seatbelts.
The same isn't for the folks that are deploying these systems. No one's licensed. What is the certification to be like-- hey, I'm a licensed AI developer. We haven't got there yet. So starting at that basic level of like OK, you are providing systems that are going to be deployed to society, and they're vetted and trusted. What is the vetting and trusting protocol?
JULIE HYMAN: The other thing I wanted to ask you about is particularly on the musical side, using AI to help compose, to help produce music, to help do new things in music. But at the same time, do you worry at all about devaluing talent?
WILL.I.AM: We're already there. It's called like chasing TikToks. If you were to take like-- OK, take a snapshot of today and a snapshot of yesterday, and talent, putting someone in the studio with just instruments, no computer, make music. Are we-- is it comparable? Yes, there's some pretty awesome people out there, but those awesome people that can do that, are they the biggest talents in the world?
Because the algorithm is suggesting that we should only do the simplistic tune down, watered down. And that's not AI doing that. We are now taking our brain and trying to fit it in an algorithmic, robotic mindset. So that's before AI started to make music. So if that's the case, then of course, AI is going to make awesome music because we've been reduced to the freaking smallest level of like awesome sauce.
So that's why I missed the artists like Prince, I miss Michael Jackson, I miss Whitney Houston, I miss those-- Thank God, we still have Stevie Wonder's. There's awesome artists like Toro y Moi, amazing artist that I've been listening to. One of those cats that play everything. As well as Tame Impala, awesome musician.
JULIE HYMAN: So there's hope then?
WILL.I.AM: Yeah, there's-- Yes, we're going to get to a point where it's like organic versus-- I don't know what you call the other food that's not organic, right? Stuff that's just--
JULIE HYMAN: Processed.
BRIAN SOZZI: Ultra processed.
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah.
WILL.I.AM: Like, we're going to want human made, but the AI stuff-- don't get me wrong. Don't get what I said twisted. It's awesome. It's awesome, the AI-generated music that's coming, especially the stuff that Demis made. Demis from DeepMind that works at Google.
JULIE HYMAN: All right, we'll have to check it all out. Will.i.am, thank you so much.
WILL.I.AM: Thank you.
JULIE HYMAN: This is cool.
WILL.I.AM: And Sound Drive is great, right?
[LAUGHTER]
I don't mean to toot my own flute, but doo-da-doo, doo-da-doo.
JULIE HYMAN: That's what we call a shameless plug, Will.