Grammy Award-winning artist and actor Will.i.am is teaming up with AI to launch a new concept that may change radio as we know it.
As the founder and CEO of FYI.AI, a creative technology company, Will.i.am recently announced Radio.FYI, described as an AI-infused interactive conversational media platform that will transform traditional radio.
"Radio is awesome as it is. It's giving you local information, but I can't ask any questions. So I was like, yo, if there was a way to build and simulate radio format, have a DJ host that allows for the DJ host to have a million conversations at once," he said. "No human can do that."
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This app is different from what you'd expect from an AI. Will.i.am says he wanted his AI to speak like a regular person.
"What song is this? Who produced it? When did it come out?" Will.i.am said about the questions it can answer.
And Radio.FYI's AI can also answer questions about news, sports and business.
"It's intentional to have natural conversations as opposed to how you talk to Siri or Alexa," Will.i.am said. "It sounds like a real person. It was important that the AI felt like somebody I knew or that we grew up with. Like it spoke how we speak and vibed how we vibe."
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Will.i.am said that data collected won't be sold or leveraged for the platform's benefit.
"Our architecture is we try to make sure that everybody has a safe environment to communicate and express," he said. "I'm excited for these new times that we're in. I'm excited that we were able to ideate, materialize, launch and grow. But it's a village and for us to have success, it's going to take the village to really get behind what we're doing."
