“AI will connect them in ways that will empower the performer and empower the fan,” will.i.am explains the future of the music industry in an exclusive interview with Euronews.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00But right now is what's going to define the future.
00:02The music industry will change dramatically
00:04because a new industry is coming,
00:06and AI will connect in ways that will empower Taylor Swift
00:09and empower the fan.
00:17Welcome to The Big Question.
00:19We're here at Cannes Lion Festival
00:21for a very special episode,
00:22where we're chatting to artist, entrepreneur,
00:24and futurist, Will.i.am.
00:25With the introduction of AI into the world of music,
00:28how has it changed your personal career process?
00:30It hasn't really changed it that much.
00:32I still like to stretch myself.
00:35I look at it like AI does yoga really well,
00:39but that doesn't mean it's going to help me stretch.
00:41I still got to stretch myself.
00:43So writing songs and making music is stretching.
00:45It's my own Pilates.
00:48It'd be great for folks that don't know how to stretch.
00:52It'd be great for folks that need that crutch.
00:55For now, I still make music the old-fashioned way.
00:58Eventually in the future,
00:59I'll do some things with these systems.
01:03How do you see the music industry changing
01:06in say like the next 10 years?
01:08The music industry will change dramatically
01:10because a new industry is coming.
01:12So in the music industry,
01:14there's actually three industries.
01:16You have the recording industry,
01:18the publishing industry, and the touring industry.
01:20And a new industry is emerging,
01:23and that will expand the economy of music,
01:26the dimensionalized music and the experience of music.
01:31But if we are to see and utilize AI
01:35to augment or do what the record industry did,
01:40that's a poor use of the technology.
01:43You're supposed to use this technology
01:45to dream up new industries,
01:48new experiences that you couldn't do otherwise.
01:53Obviously, recently we've seen
01:55lots of people saying Swiftonomics,
01:57the huge impact on not just the music industry,
02:01the whole world of big touring.
02:03How do you see that developing even further?
02:06And do you think AI will play a role
02:07in the live industry going forward?
02:09AI and live?
02:11Yeah.
02:12All right, let's take into account
02:14what everybody does when they go to a concert.
02:16When you go to a concert,
02:17how do you experience a concert?
02:18You go to a concert,
02:19how do you experience a concert?
02:20When you go to a concert,
02:21how do you experience a concert?
02:23Are you dancing?
02:24Yeah.
02:25Or are you watching through your phone?
02:26Oh, I do never watch through my phone, never.
02:28The majority of the people,
02:29they're near that one weirdo.
02:31This.
02:32Grooving over there while everybody's like this.
02:34They'll be like,
02:34yo, look at the homegirl,
02:35she's freaking rocking out.
02:37While everybody's watching the show like this.
02:38Oh my God, it's like a TV,
02:40it's all Taylor Swift.
02:41They're watching it from here.
02:42Yeah.
02:43And there's a few people that groove to the side
02:46and dancing, that's very rare.
02:48Thank you for being that.
02:49Groover.
02:50No disrespect to the phone holders
02:53because they're amplifiers.
02:54They're there to show people that I'm here
02:56and I'm gonna broadcast that through my feed
03:00to the rest of the world.
03:01So it's a beautiful thing.
03:03What's not happening at concerts,
03:05AI is not in the loop.
03:07So right now as an artist,
03:08you get up there, you'd be like,
03:09yo, what's up London?
03:11While everybody has their phones.
03:13And behind me and by everybody that's performing
03:16is a huge screen.
03:17So there's a screen that people are looking at
03:21and a big screen that is projecting
03:23a whole bunch of information that we program.
03:26And that big screen doesn't connect to those screens
03:30because AI is not in the loop.
03:32And what's not on the stage or behind stage
03:35is an AI programmer.
03:37We have everything from sounds to lights
03:39to like, you know, CO2 and pyro.
03:43We have smoke machine, dancers,
03:46we have the guitar tech, drum tech,
03:48bass tech, wardrobe, makeup.
03:52We have everything.
03:53But you don't have your AI.
03:56You have social media person there.
03:58There's no AI person on stage
04:00to connect all the screens.
04:04To understand the people as they were driving to the show.
04:08Here's what should happen.
04:09Taylor Swift's one day is gonna be like,
04:12she's gonna get a cue into her mic, to her earphone.
04:15And the AI is gonna be like,
04:17Melissa almost didn't get into the show
04:20and she'd been waiting for these tickets.
04:22And the AI is gonna tell her that.
04:24And then Taylor Swift's gonna be like,
04:25yo, Melissa.
04:27Melissa's gonna be like, what the fuck?
04:29How did you know that?
04:31Right?
04:32How would Taylor Swift know that?
04:34There is a layer that we haven't even reached yet
04:37as far as engagement from artists
04:40to the people that love the music
04:42and the things that they've been waiting for.
04:44Melissa waited for a long time to buy that ticket.
04:47She's been following Taylor Swift online
04:50and she's invisible to Taylor Swift.
04:52Yeah.
04:53But she's everything.
04:54Taylor Swift is everything to her.
04:57And AI will connect them
04:59in ways that will empower Taylor Swift
05:02and empower the fan, the audience.
05:05Because right now Taylor Swift doesn't have access
05:08to the 100% of the people that follow her on Instagram.
05:11She gets a slice.
05:13So thinking as well about other ways
05:15that AI can engage audiences.
05:19Can you tell me a little bit about your FYI radio project?
05:22So that's a hint on dimension.
05:26Right now radio is a one dimension,
05:28meaning a broadcast.
05:30You listen to Power 106 where hip hop lives
05:33or broadcast it live from Burbank, California.
05:35The 405 looks pretty jam-packed.
05:37So stay away from the 405 on this traffic jam hour.
05:40And as if you know,
05:41Cardi B just dropped a new record today.
05:43Speaking of jam-packed,
05:44here goes a new song by Cardi B
05:47called Jammin' on the Jam Jail.
05:49You hear it here on Power 106.
05:51And that's it.
05:52The person can't call up and be like,
05:54yo, what's up?
05:55And yeah, they can call up
05:56but that person could talk to the host
05:59one person at a time.
06:00So how do you dimensionalize that?
06:02We've been working on an amazing re-imagination of radio.
06:07Well, we put the AI in radio,
06:08spelled R-A-I-V-I, radio.
06:18So there's not many kind of musicians
06:20who get maybe as involved in the world of tech
06:22and AI and innovation.
06:23What drew you to working in this space?
06:25I got into tech back in mid 2000s
06:30when I worked with Blackberry in 2007,
06:35helped launch Beats in 2008,
06:38invested in Tesla in 2007
06:41before Elon took over the company,
06:43right around the time.
06:44Invested in companies like OpenAI and Chai GPT
06:48and Runway, Inflection, Oudio,
06:52and founded FYI.AI as well.
06:55So I'm just technocrat.
06:57We've been working in AI,
06:59even during the AI winter.
07:01For folks that work in AI
07:03know what the AI winter was like.
07:05It's when no investors wanted to invest
07:08and it was all research and development
07:10and people enthusiastic about the potentials of AI.
07:15In the time that you've been in this world,
07:16things have changed enormously.
07:18So looking into the future,
07:19what is kind of the most exciting
07:21technical revolution that's coming
07:23that really, really excites you?
07:25I'm excited for the right now
07:26because the right now is what's going to define the future.
07:29We have all the tools that you can imagine.
07:32You don't have to wait for the technology.
07:35The technology is here.
07:36Everything you need to build the industries of tomorrow
07:40is right now.
07:41Across medicine, extension of life,
07:44curing diseases that we have yet to cure.
07:46The cool things like media and entertainment,
07:49music making, music creation, film, storytelling.
07:53It's all up for design and re-imagination right now.
08:02I guess this brings me to my final question.
08:05I know you do a lot of work around the inclusivity of AI.
08:09Why is that so important
08:10and why is that going to make everything so much better?
08:13AI needs chips.
08:15And when the conquistadors started going off
08:18to discover new worlds that were actually not new,
08:20the people that are living there,
08:22when the ships arrived in native land,
08:26these people's cultures got erased
08:28because they now had to talk and change how they were
08:33to address this new level of experience.
08:37Why do we have to redo that with chips?
08:40We've seen it happen with ships,
08:43but when it comes to chips and artificial intelligence,
08:45why do communities have to change how they speak?
08:48Why can't it speak in their way
08:51and understand their traditions?
08:53So who's going to make sure
08:55that the diversities of inner city are met?
09:01Why do people from inner cities
09:02now have to talk like a librarian or some corporate admin?
09:07Why do they have to change?
09:09And why can't the AI understand the nuances
09:13and the details of people living in these communities?
09:17But some gnarly shit happened
09:18when those ships sailed the Atlantic.
09:21We should not let that happen again for these communities.
09:25And so that's why inclusivity, diversity,
09:30training the systems to be mindful
09:34and have empathy for folks
09:36that are subject to how the internet paints the hood.
09:43So if the AI is going to gather all the information
09:45from the internet on the hood,
09:47well, that ain't good for the hood
09:50because there's nothing but bad stuff in the hood.
09:52And who's programming the algorithm in the first place?
09:55For the AI to be empathetic and understand the conditions
09:58of the people living in these communities.
10:00Sorry to get deep.
10:01No, I love to go deep.
10:03Thank you so much.
10:03And thank you for joining us on The Big Question today.
10:05And it was really great to chat.
10:07Thanks.
10:07Awesome.