30/09/2024

LYFE MONDAY | SEP 30, 2024

24

Will.i.am utilises AI for podcast

o Black Eyed Peas frontman believes artificial intelligence can be harnessed to spur human creativity

U NLIKE many artistes, Will.i.am, frontman of the Black Eyed Peas, is not at war with artificial intelligence (AI). On the contrary, he has just launched a new radio concept, in which AI plays host and DJ. “Tech is the most creative space. When you put a team of developers together, it is like, ‘hey, let’s start a group. What type of songs do you want to make? Where do you want to tour?’,” said Will.i.am, adding that working with technology is like starting a band. As founder and CEO of the startup FYI, Will.i.am recently unveiled RAiDiO.FYI, a set of themed, interactive stations available on the FYI.AI app. The platform features an AI host that reads news and introduces music, mimicking traditional radio stations. The key difference is that users can interrupt and interact with the AI. “I heard Melania Trump was modelling nude with five hamsters. What is that about?” Will.i.am provocatively asked his app as a demonstration. “Whoaaa… where are you getting these wild stories from? She did do some nude modelling back in the day but I never heard any credible sources mentioning her modelling with five hamsters. Sounds like some fake news, right?” the radio answered back. Currently, the radio station has landscape, including social media platforms. YouTube and Snapchat are increasingly integrating AI into tools and features to facilitate content creation. So, what is in store from these new AI assistants? YouTube recently announced a series of AI-based innovations at its Made on YouTube event. These new features aim to enrich the experience for creators and viewers alike. Last year, YouTube launched Dream Screen, a feature for generating imaginative backgrounds for YouTube Shorts. Now, the platform is enriching it with Veo, Google DeepMind’s AI based video generation model. With Veo, creators will be able to bring to life visual concepts that were once impossible to visualise. The tool will be able to create a six-second video clip from the user’s footage. “For example, if you are looking through your footage and feel like you are missing something to help tie it all together, you can effortlessly generate a singular clip that fits right in with the content you have already captured,”

a limited playlist of 40 tracks. However, Will.i.am is actively working to secure rights to broader music catalogues. His goal is to innovate in radio because he sees it as an ally to musicians, unlike streaming platforms such as Spotify, which he believes underpay artistes. into AI-powered radio is just the latest chapter in his tech-savvy career. Since his rise to fame with Black Eyed Peas, the rapper has invested in various sectors, from fashion to technology. He is particularly passionate about generative AI, setting him apart from many artistes who view the technology with concern. Many artistes are up in arms over models such as ChatGPT, which produce texts, images and audio simply by being asked in everyday language, after being trained by material scraped online. Will.i.am draws parallels to the past. “We saw this when we went from paintings to cameras: ‘ah, it took me two weeks to make this painting and this guy comes and puts the button and boom, now he has a photo!’. There is always going to be this growing pain and that is because something is birthing. A new type of artiste is coming,” he added. Will.i.am believes human No imagination Will.i.am’s venture explained YouTube. In addition, YouTube has also unveiled a new AI-powered assistant designed to help provide users with inspiration. It will be able to suggest personalised content, such as video ideas, titles, thumbnails and outlines to match the creator’s style. Meanwhile, Snapchat also unveiled new AI tools at its annual Snap Partner Summit 2024 event. Indeed, Evan Spiegel’s social network announced the enhancement of its augmented reality creation tools via the GenAI Suite. “Now, through the Animation Library, creators can choose from hundreds of high-quality movements,” explained the platform. Snapchat described how users will be able to generate content from simple text descriptions. “Body Morph generates full 3D characters, costumes and outfits through a text or image prompt. Icon Generation provides creators with images to represent their Lens on Snapchat, making it easier for their Lenses to be discovered by our global community,” said the platform. Soon, AI-based enhancements

In his day-to-day life, Will.i.am says he maintains a balance between embracing AI and preserving his human creativity. – AFPPIC

because you are not human, you are the AI.” In his day-to-day life, Will.i.am says he maintains a balance between embracing AI and preserving his human creativity. He does not use AI assistants for writing messages, preferring to compose his own thoughts. “I like to write. I like to compose my thoughts. I do not want to hand off my expressive work to something,” he explained. Will.i.am turns to AI when he needs something to brainstorm with. – AFP

creativity remains safe from the power of AI. “What AI does not do is imagine, it mimics. It is not going to imagine better than you.” the potential dangers of AI, especially as Silicon Valley races to develop human-level AI. “You mean to tell me, we are about to deploy autonomous machines and we never did a psych test on the folks building them? Get outta here! Let’s start Human touch Will.i.am acknowledges

there.” The 49-year-old artiste enjoys engaging in debates with his AI radio, using it as a tool to test ideas. During the interview, he asks about human cognitive abilities, compared with those of AI. “That is one deep, deep question you got there. “Listen, listen, first off, let’s bust a myth. Humans do not just use 10% of their brains. We use pretty much all of it.” Will.i.am quickly corrected it: “Hey refrain from saying ‘we’

YouTube, Snapchat revolutionising digital landscape ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the digital

The new features aim to enrich the experience for creators and viewers alike. – AFPPIC

will be coming to Bitmoji, the virtual characters that are supposed to represent its users. “We will make it possible to generate an animation through a

simple description, bringing Bitmoji to life. We will also support Video to 3D Gaussian Splats, letting creators bring 3D renderings of real-world objects into Lenses. By taking a short

video of an object and uploading it to Lens Studio, the object will be reconstructed into a photorealistic 3D asset,” explained Snapchat. – ETX Studio