Pop star-turned-Arizona State College professor will.i.am teaches “The Agentic Self” at his headquarters in Los Angeles, Calif., on Jan. 14, 2026.
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Emily Choi/FYI.AI
The Black Eyed Peas spoke to a era within the 2000s with tracks like “I Gotta Feeling,” “Let’s Get it Began” and “The place is the Love?”
These days, nevertheless, co-founder will.i.am has been chatting with a brand new era – fairly actually – together with his three-hour-long, weekly lessons for Arizona State College on the theme of “agentic AI.”
Both beamed in on screens from Arizona State’s important campus, or proper there with him on the lecture theater he constructed as a part of his enterprise advanced in Los Angeles, the roughly 80 college students enrolled in will.i.am’s class are every making an attempt to construct their very own AI agent – a software program system that may carry out duties autonomously, with out requiring a human immediate.
The artwork of future-proofing
As somebody who has lengthy projected a tech-forward picture – it was will.i.am who got here up with the a lot quoted lyric, “I am so 3008. You are so 2000 and late” from the Peas’ 2009 tune “Growth Growth Pow” – the pop star turned philanthropist, entrepreneur and educator is now working to equip younger individuals for an employment market that is being reshaped by know-how.
“You’re a firm, Dave. You are not identical to a inventive dude,” will.i.am stated throughout a current class, sounding extra like a motivational coach than a university professor as he addressed people within the tiered seating round him. “You are an organization – Claudia – Karen.”
College students informed NPR they get so much out of will.i.am’s method.
“Not everyone that is coming inside this class has a tech background,” stated undergraduate Ren Flint. “He is been capable of break AI down and make it accessible to everybody.”
“Some individuals would possibly assume what he is speaking about is likely to be bizarre,” stated graduate scholar Luke Azariah. “However this man is future-proofing a whole lot of us.”
Realizing wild concepts with tech
In an interview with NPR a couple of hours earlier than class, will.i.am stated people can’t hope to compete with AI until they’re hyper-creative.
Members of the Black Eyed Peas — apl.de.ap, Fergie, Taboo and can.i.am — on the 2011 iHeartRadio Music Pageant in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Isaac Brekken/Getty
“It is the best time to dream and materialize ideas that have not been materialized,” he stated.
Realizing wild concepts with tech is principally what’s going to.i.am has been as much as for many of his life. Born William Adams in 1975 in a working-class Los Angeles neighborhood, will.i.am stated he was 12 years outdated and experimenting with stage names – his first moniker was “Will Chill” – when he took his sister’s Barbie and the Rockers cassette tape, recorded his personal rap loops over it, after which performed the combination again by way of his sister’s cassette-tape-powered, animatronic Teddy Ruxpin toy bear.
“My sister was pissed,” will.i.am recalled.
The musician and entrepreneur stated there is a direct hyperlink between this early experiment and “MÖFO” – or “Modular Omni Operate Operator” – the AI agent-powered Teddy bear he developed in partnership with Qualcomm and confirmed off at this yr’s Shopper Electronics Present in Las Vegas. The agent is just not a toy, will.i.am stated, however is meant to enhance productiveness and studying. However he stated the lovable exterior helps to humanize AI.
Foreseeing the “growth growth pow”
It is too early to inform if “MÖFO” will take off. However the man appears to have a knack for predicting the technological improvements probably to go “growth growth pow.”
Take AI music.
It is develop into massive information over the previous couple of years. However will.i.am was taking part in round with it effectively over a decade in the past, as seen within the music video for the 2010 Black Eyed Peas tune “Imma Be Rocking That Physique.”
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“I simply sort within the lyrics. After which this factor sings it, says it, raps it, talks it,” he says to his bandmates within the video.
Singer Fergie is visibly upset.
“We’re not robots!” she exclaims, earlier than storming out of the room. Then the music begins, accompanied partially by pictures of pleasant, dancing robots.
Competing pursuits?
At present, the cultural backlash in opposition to AI and AI music is widespread. So will.i.am devotes a whole lot of time in his Arizona State class to discussing ethics and accountability. A video performed throughout class warns of the dangers: “You have seen how company brokers are used. You have seen what occurs with no guardrails.”
But will.i.am has additionally embraced company tech. He is an investor in AI corporations like Anthropic and OpenAI, in addition to the AI music creation platform Udio, and has partnered with Apple, Intel and Nvidia, amongst different Silicon Valley giants.
“He was a terrific model ambassador,” stated Deborah Conrad, a former chief advertising officer at Intel who employed will.i.am as the corporate’s Director of Inventive Innovation in 2011.
Intel’s Deborah Conrad and can.i.am on stage asserting his appointment as director of inventive innovation in Jan. 2011, on the firm’s worldwide gross sales and advertising convention.
Courtesy of Deborah Conrad
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Courtesy of Deborah Conrad
Tech journalist Brian Service provider stated it is laborious to reconcile these seemingly competing pursuits.
“That line between ardour for know-how, ardour for the concept it may make individuals’s lives higher, and simply increasing his market portfolio and his salience as a pop cultural icon, will get fairly blurry in there,” Service provider stated. “However that does not essentially imply that he isn’t real in his aim to attempt to determine a method to get AI to work.”
will.i.am is just not the one high-profile musician to have ventured into the world of tech. He co-founded Beats Electronics with Dr. Dre (and file trade government Jimmy Iovine), which was bought to Apple in 2014 as a part of a deal that additionally included Beats Music for $3 billion. Nas, Snoop Dogg, Brian Eno and Justin Bieber have additionally invested closely in tech.
Nate Sloan, an assistant professor of musicology on the College of Southern California and co-host of the podcast Switched on Pop, stated will.i.am stands out from the pack. “willi.am has made it extra part of his identification and extra of an integral a part of his profession than anybody else I can consider,” he stated.
Alongside all this, will.i.am’s music profession continues to be going. The Black Eyed Peas are heading out on an abroad tour in June. Past his work with the Peas, will.i.am additionally launched the anti-ICE anthem “East LA” final yr, although it has been a couple of years since he launched a success single or album as a solo artist or with the group.
A prototype of “Trinity” on show at will.i.am’s enterprise advanced in April, 2026. The three-wheeled electrical automobile is supplied with an agentic AI system to assist improve productiveness whereas driving.
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He appears extra targeted today on his entrepreneurial and academic pursuits. Amongst different initiatives, he is creating a automotive with an AI agent. And he stated he is hoping to show a second semester at Arizona State.
“The fun of creating music and singing on stage, we’ll at all times try this,” will.i.am stated. “However educating is that this completely different calling. That is simply the primary yr, and it is dope.”
