Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - will.i.am: Creativity is Your Currency, How AI Will Empower Underserved Communities and Evolve Humanity | E257

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Starting point is 00:01:07 Will I am founder and lead member of the Black Eyed Peas holding seven Grammys under his belt and experienced Tekonch Benore, Creative Innovator, Futurist and Philanthropist. He's the founder and CEO of FYI.AI, an AI-powered productivity tool for creative, and he also does a lot of work for inner city disadvantaged youth to learn STEM skills. AI's job is to be that thing that wakes us up to really truly do what we're supposed to do on this planet

Starting point is 00:01:34 and that is to be loving the whole entire electromagnetic spectrum. You're trying to make as much human-made music as possible. So talk to us about the way that music is gonna change from AI and creators in general are gonna have to adapt to us about the way that music is going to change from AI and creators in general are going to have to adapt to AI in the future. Young and profitors, welcome back to the show. Today I have an extremely special guest. Will I Am is perhaps most well known as the founder and lead member of the Black Eyed

Starting point is 00:02:11 P's holding seven Grammys under his belt, but you may not know that Will I Am is also an experienced tech entrepreneur, creative innovator, futurist, and philanthropist. He's the founder and CEO of FYI.AI, an AI-powered productivity tool for creatives. He also does a lot of work to encourage inner-city disadvantaged youth to learn STEM skills so they can be prepared for the AI revolution. Will I am? Thank you so much for joining me on Young & Profiting Podcast. Nice to meet you, Harla. Thanks for having me. You know, I don't often get a chance to speak with legendary artists like you, so I'm really happy to have you on the show.

Starting point is 00:02:48 And I want to get into so many topics from how you rose up in your music career to AI and its impact on creators, as well as your experience as an entrepreneur and a futurist. But before we get into the future, I'd love to get into your past. You grew up in LA, you were raised by a single mother. I also learned that you were voted most likely to succeed in high school, but tell us in your own words, what was young will I am like? I grew up in an all-next-can-naborhood, one to a predominantly white school,

Starting point is 00:03:19 in a really rich neighborhood, and I went to all black church. So that kind of like upbringing of different ethnicities, diversity, capital differentiation, the haves and the have-nots, I realized, you know, what I possessed was something that was sought after that money couldn't buy. that was sought after that money couldn't buy. That was authenticity, creativity, imagination, and no matter which pocket I was rocking in, whether it was my neighborhood in Mistele,

Starting point is 00:03:53 which is poor, predominantly mehicano, to palisades and Brentwood and Parvier, where the rich white folks are at, or the soulful black church, the creativity and the imagination, that was my currency. That's what separated me from the herds. And I loved it. I loved being in that diverse mix. And at what point in your childhood or teenage years did you first get interested in music? People always say like, you know, I was in a music ever since I was like, for real.

Starting point is 00:04:29 I was into music ever since I was nine. I could say nine. Nine years old. That's when I realized I really loved it. Thirteen is when I started writing my own songs. By fifteen, this is what I wanted to do for a living. By seventeen, I had a record deal. I had a record contract at 17, I was in the,

Starting point is 00:04:49 just hopped into the 11th grade, and it was a big deal going to school. When I came to school with my record contract or my check, I was like, look, I got a record deal with easy-eat, Ruthless Records, NWA, what? So my neighborhood was like, fucking Willie Dog, you sound like easy e-homes. And so that was beautiful, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:09 when your neighborhood is proud. And then all my friends, my wife friends in school were like, oh my gosh, William, you got a record tell it's so freaking cool. And so that was cool. And then my friends at church were like, dang, wheeled, expert, a dope. I had like a lot of support and acknowledgement

Starting point is 00:05:28 and you know, everyone was proud of that accomplishment at 17, so that went a long way. That's incredible. And your music career has been absolutely epic. You've gotten seven Grammy Awards, a Latin Grammy Award, a daytime Emmy Award. You produce songs for superstars like Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Shakira, John Legend, and you're rise to fame, aside from your talent, must have been great, right?

Starting point is 00:05:52 So I'm curious to understand the motivation behind your career and all that you've achieved. Well, rise to fame, that's just like the results of relentless push. Go get it. Adores closed. You design a new door. Like a lot of time people think when the doors close, you wait for another door to open. You actually are supposed to design a new door. Once again, it's that creativity is your currency, where you have to make the opportunities.

Starting point is 00:06:26 You don't wait for opportunities. And the rise to fame is the result of that type of like manifesting dreams, because people would rather see you fail as entertainment. When watching people fail is entertainment, you have that working against any dreamer, was when the world wants to see you fall. Or when there's so many setbacks in your community, there's so many setbacks in society as a whole, trip wires, peer pressure, try this drug, partake in these promiscuous activities, all those types of things are like partake in these promiscuous activities. All those types of things are like recipes for your dream to be compromised.

Starting point is 00:07:08 If you want to be the author of your success, or be lucky that you have success, which one you want. Luck is like a gamble. An author of success is sacrifice, dedication, and focus. Hustle networking, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, and selecting who your support system is, because a lot of times like the nightmare could creep and the nightmare are basic things like I got to pay my bills. The nightmare is like I got to get a job, that's a nightmare to a dream, because a job is not necessarily the vehicle to manifest your dream. Sometimes a job. That's a nightmare to a dream because a job is not necessarily the vehicle to manifest your dream. Sometimes a job is the vehicle to destroy your dream. Like when you're working at a job, you're actually working to help somebody else's dream real. Or you could have a dream and really put strategy behind that dream. And then there's people that are going

Starting point is 00:08:05 to want to work with you to make your dream real. Like what's one do you want? And I want it to be in the vehicle of manifesting my dream. To do that, you need a support system. You have to put yourself in a situation to where getting a job, and I know that sounds really like, that sounds irresponsible for me to say that. Like, getting a job is the trip wire to manifest your dream. But for a lot of folks, it is. And so, my journey is because of people that really helped me not have to take that route. You know, my mom, my ex-girlfriend, her family,

Starting point is 00:08:49 they really help me from not having to like, when you're gonna get a job, like I have a job, I'm just not getting paid yet. Watch, you'll see, one day I'll get paid. I just need you to help me hold it down. I never done drug. You have to be like, nah, that's not what I want to do. Pramiscuous activities. I was never into that kind of like, hey, what a

Starting point is 00:09:11 girl. You know, say it. Because that could really fuck your dream up when you're out there or like something's going to take your energy. And so I always invested my energy in the dream. A lot of times, you know, your personal life sacrifices, because you know, you put all your energy in the dream. So that rise to fame, I don't like that word fame, because that's like you're doing it for the wrong reasons. My reasons were like, I just want to take care of my family. I want to be able to support, provide. I want to be able to always have the ability to have an idea and manifest that idea.

Starting point is 00:09:49 Now, you really won the hearts of the American people, especially with Black Eyed P's. And there's so many artists, especially today, now that you can release music independently, digitally. So why do you think that you made it compared to so many artists who go unnoticed? Sacrifice, focus, reaching, not settling for like immediate success, always reaching for like broader success.

Starting point is 00:10:19 Like, hey, my neighborhood's dope. I wanna have popularity in my neighborhood, but I also wanna go to that neighborhood over there. I want to rock this crowd over here at this college at USC, but I also want to rock UCLA. I want to rock UCLA, but I also want to go to Northridge. I want to rock Northridge. I also want to go to to Dominguez Hills. You'll imagine we play San Diego like we've been rocking LA. How about we go to San Diego State and you you see SD. You'll imagine we go San Diego, like we've been rocking out late. How about we go to San Diego State and UCSD? You'll imagine we go to Freken Santa Barbara College. And so that mentality of growth, growth, growth, growth,

Starting point is 00:10:53 new neighborhoods, new locations, new fan bases that kept us hungry. And a lot of times when you do that, you have the truest and the purists that are like, yo man, like, you'all hate underground no more. Who said I wanna stay underground? At one point in time, Black O'Pee's were an underground group. And there's a rap that I wrote

Starting point is 00:11:16 before we released our first record. And there's two songs, one is called Joyson Jams. And the lyric on Joyson Jams says, we're about mass appeal. No segregation got black to Asian and Caucasian saying that's the joint. That's the jam. And that was always the mission. There's another song that says, yo, my man, I got a plan to do it all. I got to plan that none of y'all ever thought about because underground niggas don't be thinking on conno, and then oh like Lincoln

Starting point is 00:11:46 How can you make moves when you always trapped under? I'm trying to reach the surface to learn more about the thunder I wonder what really makes the world go around not thugs because thugs go round to bring other brothers down to be in it for a quick Blink, but when you start to sink you'll be deeper than you was when you should have stopped to think about your Consequence to actions don't make like the sense, choose a wicked life because of lack of confidence. The devil jacked you for your sins. Now, you can pay the rent and that's no accident. You let it slip so it went. That that whole mentality of like staying on this like conscious path

Starting point is 00:12:18 to reach as many people as possible has always been our mission from the jump. Like, yo, imagine going to Brazil, bro? Not just Rio, but Kudachiba, Belizone, Porta legato, Fort Elisa, Fort Anopolis, you know, Brazilia, São Paulo, Bahia, like, let's go to all the places. That's always been our whole like black eyed piece.

Starting point is 00:12:46 We tour more outside America than we toured America. Like America was like, yeah, we American. That's dope, but the world is massive. So your accolades don't stop with music. You're an entrepreneur, you're a founder and CEO, you're a philanthropist. And so I want to get into your philanthropy hopefully later in the interview if we have time.

Starting point is 00:13:07 First, I wanna talk about your role in business and entrepreneurship. So I know that you're a futurist and you've been a creative advisor to many major companies. Why do you call yourself a futurist and how do you see the future more clearly than others? I was a futurist when I was in a project. Because to get out the projects,

Starting point is 00:13:26 you have to have a future mindset. Hmm. You have to be able to have a plausible path out of a circumstance that has been set up for you to fail. And that type of dreaming and strategy behind the dream to manifest that dream to reality, that's future casting. It's one thing from like, I'm not into dreaming and I'm not into wishing.

Starting point is 00:13:52 I like to have plausible future casting and use my intuition. Play on intuition and intuition. Like you follow your intuition on where you think things can go after you've spunged up the world and used your imagination to imagine what is going to come next. And so applying that same type of world building that got me out of the world that was born in, I have applied that to not only the black IPs, I apply that to, you know, me consulting for companies like Intel, Coca-Cola, Beats, Apple, Mercedes, and you know, startups, things like that.

Starting point is 00:14:39 So really happy with how things have turned out and the network that has been built, invested in companies early on, Twitter, early on, Pinterest, early on, Tesla, before Elon took over the company, Twitter, before Elon took over the company. Elon's dope, he's a big inspiration as far as what's possible business-wise where individuals can create companies that compete with giant companies. That's dope. I like going out and finding teams, investing in teams. I like trying to solve problems, funding those

Starting point is 00:15:19 solutions and creating companies and then going out and raising money, that journey is probably the most creative journey for any creative to do. It's like, hey, let's apply our minds and our imagination to solve this problem. And if we solve that problem, let's see if there's a company that we can create from solving that problem. And what is it going to take for us to materialize that in the form of a company, are we gonna use our own money, are we gonna go out and raise money?

Starting point is 00:15:50 Who do we need in our fold to operationalize these creative workshops of identifying a problem, solving that problem, turning that problem into a product, funding that product, creating a company, right? That to me is the most creative type of workshopping in the whole world of creativity doing that. That's such an interesting perspective.

Starting point is 00:16:17 I've never really heard it that way. While we're on the topic of you being a futurist, what's the most futuristic thing that you've ever done? I've done some pretty... You have? You played your music on Mars? I knew that. Yeah, that was a dope. That was a really cool collaboration with NASA to send a song on curiosity to Mars and beaming back to Earth. That was dope. And it inspired our students to see what's possible as far as like inner city kids being in and around science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

Starting point is 00:16:55 and showing them that we too can be a part of space exploration and engineering and showing them what's possible. Because a lot of times when you watch these documentaries or these movies about space exploration, a lot of times the folks that look like us, that were involved are very rarely celebrated. And there's lots of folks that look like us

Starting point is 00:17:19 that have been behind the scenes doing awesome work. And I salute those Afronauts. And that astronaut, Afronauts are like the scenes doing awesome work. And I salute those AfroNots, and that AfroNots, like the AfroNots. Yeah, Urban Nights that are out there exploring space. And that was really cool. So other futuristic things that I've done, it's not futurist as far as like your typical concept, the futurism, but going back to my neighborhood

Starting point is 00:17:46 and starting a robotics program and computer science program was a futurist endeavor. And I started with 65 kids, and now we have about just a little over 13,000 students in LA in robotics and technology and computer science and engineering that's future casting you are applying yourself identified a problem and trying to solve that problem other futuristic things I did was back in 2012 we built a watch we forked the android created our own operating system, put our own chipset, a mobile chipset, a Snapdragon chipset onto the wrist, wrap the battery around the wrist, put a camera on the device. In 2012, so in 2012, 13, not many watches that were doing that.

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Starting point is 00:23:14 Talk to us about when you were first exposed to AI and how you believe that AI is going to change the world. First time I heard the concept of AI was in 2005, and I met this amazing professor at MIT. His name is Professor Patrick Winston, Rest in Peace. I was introduced to him by a guy by the name of Alan Hartstone in the Media Lab. And every time I would go to Boston, I would try my hardest to go to Professor Patrick Winston's AI class. From 2005, 2006, 2007, and you know, just learn. And I was inspired by the field and a lot of the AI works and research that was happening in the not so popular side of culture. Because nobody

Starting point is 00:24:02 was really checking for AI back then in popular culture. And in 2009, BlackIpeas did this video called I'ma Be Rockin' That Body. And if you Google it, type in I'ma Be Rockin' That Body. There's a 10 minute video. The intro of that video has me coming to my best friends, BlackIpeas, and saying, yo, this right here is the future.

Starting point is 00:24:22 BlackIpeas, what's gonna take us right here is a future. Black IPs, what's going to take us to three thousand and eight is this AI. We're going to invest in allowing our ideas to always be able to make songs in the future in three thousand and eight. The AI is that we program and train by ingesting all this information, their whole entire English language and our timbers, behind notes, by low notes, the whole concept of how to train and prompt engineer is in this video in 2009. So I've been in AI for a while, and so that watch that I told you that we made in 2013,

Starting point is 00:25:01 2012 and 2013, was a voice, contextual voice, conversational OS. So we were doing conversational computing back in 2013, 14, 15 on a product that we had on our wrist. But it was too early. It was early on that type of future casting. And I learned about the future, the potentials when I was sitting in the futurist department at Intel and a watch like, you know, hey, let's reimagine what a watch is. And if you have small real estate on your wrist, you should be able to speak to it rather than type and swipe. So that's the reason why we entered into voice computing back in 2012 when we started building it. 2013, we had a first prototype. 2014 is when

Starting point is 00:25:45 we launched it. It took us about two years to materialize. And we had an AI, a conversational, contextual voice operating system on the device. And ever since then, I've just been investing in AI teams, solutions invested in a bunch of the, a handful of the companies that are popular today. I invested in early stages of these companies that we know of now. So cool. I never realized that you were so involved in AI for such a long time.

Starting point is 00:26:18 That's like such cool information to learn because everybody thinks of you, mostly for your music career, but it's so cool to learn all these other things that you've been doing. Yeah, well, we just got out of AI winter. So the folks over at OpenAI helped push the field out of AI winter. So there's been people that have been working in AI for years. That's how we've gotten to this place of awesome sauce. People like Demis and Mustafa,

Starting point is 00:26:49 the founders of DeepMind. So there's an amazing firm called Horizon Ventures. So the AI company that I started back in 2012, 13, we had the same investors. and I was introduced to Demis and Mustafa more connected to Demis back in 2013 and 14. Seeing the work that that DeepMind was doing back then and it's a small community of folks that are working on these technologies. It's an awesome community from all the way from you know Dario and Thrapik. awesome community from all the way from, you know, Dario at Anthropic, the original architect for the GPT-1, 2, and 3, and Sam Altman and the chat GPT cats to Mustafa and inflection, Reed Hoffman to Clim and the Hulking Face crew to the runway cats, the mid-journey, wow, the mid-journey wow the mid-journey folks That's amazing mid-journeys like what what you know how big the mid-journey team is

Starting point is 00:27:51 Even that big the what like yo redefining like yo Small teams doing awesome stuff check out the tool like wow. I got to check it out. I never checked it out yet You haven't checked out made journey? No, I've never even heard of it. I don't even think I'm I guarantee you I'm really caught up on things. I've never heard of made journey. You'll made journey.

Starting point is 00:28:14 What is it? The shit calm. Okay. Awesome dot awesome dot org. You got to like celebrate and salute awesome. Runways dope too. Runways really, really dope. Infliction is really, really fresh. You know, there's a lot of cool stuff that's coming. There's new companies working on new cool things. FYI, we're trying our hardest to

Starting point is 00:28:38 push the boundaries on what like creative messaging is like Web 3.0 creative enterprise. What is that creators have never had a messaging tool made for them where you could send big files on the messenger open big files on the messenger secure big files with elliptical curve cryptography methodologies have AI in the conversation with you and your team have AI in the conversation with you and your team in a very safe, trusted way. Like, you know, we're really trying to champion my communication in a creative Renaissance and transforming the messenger. So yeah, FYI dot AI is like, we're really rocking inspired by the mid-Journey team to stay lean and small, focus, build, and solve problems to help creators be better creatives and supercharge them with awesome tools. Let's stick on that for a minute. I was talking to Lee a while ago when we first were talking about

Starting point is 00:29:37 having you on the show. She's part of your team and she was telling me how during COVID, you suddenly had to work from home. And you were kind of driven mad, like how am I supposed to use all the, this is really hard to work from home. And you realize there were so many problems when it came to musicians and creators trying to create music when they had to work from home.

Starting point is 00:29:59 So talk to us about the problems that you saw. Before COVID, you know, the world was the world. We took for granted how we used to do things. We went to work and we took for granted how awesome going to work was. We went home and we took for granted how awesome a peaceful home was. And then all of a sudden the world stopped

Starting point is 00:30:24 and we were working from home. And we realized that the home environment that we thought was home needed to have a little bit more love, because people didn't really appreciate their home. And they really didn't appreciate their work. It just, it was what it was. It allowed us to look at things a little bit deeper.

Starting point is 00:30:43 And just what is personal time? What is mental health? What is family? What is work life? What is the balance between family work life? Like it allowed us to look at ourselves in the world and the world and society and in earth and separate them. Because a lot of times people mix up the world

Starting point is 00:31:14 from society and society from earth and the planet. All these words that get interplayed into the world, what does that actually mean? They end up the planet and the society and the state, how can we continue to sustain this? The planet's going to like cease, like, no, that's not. The planet will heal itself. It always has cycle after cycle after cycle. And our contribution to it. And then there's a world, which is a construct, a human construct, something that we created, this concept of worlds, borders, nations, extraction,

Starting point is 00:31:44 bind land, bind, all this stuff is like, borders, nations, extraction, buying land, buying product, all this stuff is made up, actually. And we all abide by it. We all agreed that this is worth that. Some things are inhumane on what is worth what. I saw the world in a different way during COVID. And a lot of that was like, But I saw the world in a different way during COVID. And a lot of that was like, damn what?

Starting point is 00:32:08 We value all this stuff, but don't value this stuff. People's lives? People's lives are precious. Wow, that stuff is really cheap, but really somebody paid with their lives? That's why it's cheap. Wow. We were doing, when we still do some pretty inhumane things, in the name of cheap, in the name of a discount, and we've discounted all the people who are responsible for your discount. Being home allowed me to really look deep in myself, what my purpose is,

Starting point is 00:32:47 and myself, what my purpose is, why am I creating, am I trying to be solution-oriented, purposeful, and I started looking at the tools that I used to communicate, or that were given to me to communicate. And at COVID, during COVID, it's like, the messenger was, and Zoom came out of nowhere. Nobody was talking about Zoom before COVID. Like you barely skyped during COVID. And Zoom just Zoom passed like Skype, like poor Skype. Yeah. I was like, poor Skype. Zoom just came out of nowhere. And the creatives were continuing to rock on what's happened.

Starting point is 00:33:24 I message and to do that, you need to drop box and we transfer. I'm like, wait, my conversations are on the messenger and email sometimes because this file is super large, so they have to send it on a we transfer and I have to open it and zip on my laptop because I can't open it for my phone on a messenger. Some comments are on the drop box,

Starting point is 00:33:44 some comments and replies are on the email. Where was that note? Was the note on the, like this shit is all over the place. And that was like the majority of 2020 for my field. I'm like, wow, I wanna solve this just for me. And the people that I collaborate with, like this is, there has to be a better way

Starting point is 00:34:04 to work off the phone or tablet. An email is like, oh, school. I don't like email. Email is like this old clunky. What's the conversation for? Like the shit is all over the place. People are sitting in long texts, but short emails like this shit is broken. Text for always supposed to be short. That's why they call them SMS for short messages. But people are sending log messages on text, but short emails like yes, hello, no, and I'm getting all these like CCs of just like yes,

Starting point is 00:34:32 the nose on email, this is broken. So it's like, let me find some awesome engineers and try to have like the singular interface of a communication, collaboration, digital asset management, work place in the form of a communication, collaboration, digital asset management, workplace, and the form of a messenger. Where I could send large files, where I could collaborate better and have a better track of who said what, when they said what, awesome ledgers, where I could send things and remove

Starting point is 00:35:00 access to the encryption key to where now you don't have access to that folder or that file anymore. I could block it to where you can't take a screenshot or screen record. I can assign face ID. The only person that could see this is this face and this face only. That's what a mission just should be like in 2020 right now, where people and teams can interact with intelligence all on the group thread, where it's generative AI and awesome talent all on the same conversation flow. Like, you know, if you're stuck and you need extra strategic counsel, you know, an AI

Starting point is 00:35:41 away, you could just evoke strategy for many place on the on the messenger. Yes That's what a messenger should sound like in 2020 Right now and so we started building that we had that vision back in 2020 materialized In 2021 the back in the back in to allow you to call from the content right now right now in any messenger I send you something and then I'd be now right now in any messenger. I send you something and then I'd be like, yo, yo, did you see what I sent you? You'd be like, yeah, okay, check it out and call me back. That's the flow right now. Or let's hop on this zoom. Hey, hold on, I'm a sure my screen.

Starting point is 00:36:17 And then after you share your screen, you're like, yo, yo, can you send me a email of what you shared? Or, hey, did you, uh, did you open up that text I sent you with that file? Look at it and call me back. That's the flow right there. On FYI it's like, yo, I'm gonna call you from this piece of content. I'm gonna call you from this file so that when you see my phone call ringing, you know what I'm calling you for. I'm calling you about this file. So you can even preview it before you enter the phone. And then you know the context of what I'm calling about. And then if I share this project with you

Starting point is 00:36:53 or, you know, because FYI is project based, you don't have to ask me for that file later. If I wanted you to keep it, I allow you to keep it. If I wanted to remove it, I removed access. I turned the key off. You don't have access to that. And then you have to call like, Hey, that project you shared, can you give me access to see that? So those types of like turning off and on keys to remove or give you access to files that are dear to me, giving me the ability to protect those files, you know, that are precious to me, giving me the ability to protect those files that are precious to me, whether the files are docs or songs or videos or PDFs or projects or contracts, whatever

Starting point is 00:37:33 those files are that are precious to your dream and materializing those dreams, you should have all the tools to secure those files. And more importantly, you should own all that data. You should have to worry about some company freaking selling your identity and your data away. Like that doesn't sound like 2020 right now. That sounds like some freaking greedy ass data monarchy companies that are taking advantage of people, their communities, and their civil liberties. No, that's not creative. Creativity is always like collaborative. Creativity is always like, hey, this is about the community.

Starting point is 00:38:10 Creativity is always about harmony and, you know, being in sync and making sure you make sense of the noise. That's music, that's art. That's how we're building FYIs from those principles. Yeah, FYI sounds super cool. Is it just for musicians right now? Because I could see it being used for podcasts, for YouTubers. Yeah, so podcasts, YouTubers, vloggers, bloggers, musicians, storytellers, bookwriters, tutors, teachers, students. It's a collaboration, networking, communication tool for this era, for this age, for this new Renaissance.

Starting point is 00:38:54 And is there a way for people to try it for free? Oh, right now FYI is for free. So we're on iOS, we're on Android, we're about to release our desktop, you, and our tablet, you like really soon, adding awesome features by the end of the year. So yeah, it's really, really, really awesome. And the team is strong and small, tiny, but mighty, inspired by the mid-journey, those guys are when I heard how awesome, itty bitty but amazing their team was. It goes to show

Starting point is 00:39:28 like startups can do amazing things with awesome talent and no matter how different they are from you know the juggernauts, the giants of yester, you know these small speedboats that can also pull megatons when it comes to the architecture and the vision. That's what's awesome about the age, the Srinasons, because a team of four now has the power of the team of 200. What does that mean? Somebody could be like, yeah, but that's putting a lot of folks out of jobs. And my argument with these four that I'm talking about never got considered in the workplace to begin with, there's a part of culture that no one really paid attention to when it came to equality and diversifying.

Starting point is 00:40:16 They never went to the inner cities and brought them up to speed on the new technological advances. So when it comes to jobs that will be obliterated because of AI, that's unfortunate. That happens in every industry shift from the third industrial revolution, from second to third, a lot of jobs are rendered obsolete. So if you are a candlestick maker or your family made land turns for hundreds of years and then the light bulb came and electricity came, those jobs were rendered not obsolete, but they were reduced. Candles are still made still to this day,

Starting point is 00:40:57 but that's not the only type of illumination. Technological evolution has enriched our lives. And now this new technological evolution has enriched our lives. And now this new technological evolution going from the third industrial revolution to the fourth industrial revolution, unfortunately, like the second to the third, lots of jobs will go. But new jobs will grow. Who's going to create those new jobs? I think those jobs that are going to be created,

Starting point is 00:41:24 those industries that are going to created, those industries that are gonna be on Earth are gonna come from folks whose problems were always ignored, right? People that come from underserved communities, those underserved communities, no one really ever looked for the server in the first place and held that person accountable. No one ever held the underdeveloper that was responsible for the underdeveloped community.

Starting point is 00:41:49 When you say underdeveloped community, there is a developer on the other end of that sentence. But no one was ever like, yo, who is this developer in the first damn place? That's responsible for this underdeveloped community. And now for the first time in these people's lives, and I'm one of those people, because I come from those types of communities, we now have tools where we could solve our problems ourselves. We could serve ourselves with these tools, we could develop our communities ourselves with these tools, and identify these problems that have always been affecting us.

Starting point is 00:42:25 And when you solve those problems, new jobs, new careers will be in society. And that's why I'm super optimistic is because it's going to do two things. It's going to supercharge imaginative creative folks that have always lived in those circumstances to finally solve those problems themselves. And by doing that, they are tomorrow's entrepreneurs. There are tomorrow's industry leaders and trailblazers that will unearth tomorrow's jobs, workforces, awesome times, new renaissance. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors.

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Starting point is 00:48:14 FDIC-insured bank. Banking services and FDIC insurance provided through Evolve Bank and Trust and Thread Bank members FDIC. The relay visa debit card is issued by Thread Bank, pursuant to a license from Visa USAA Incorporated, and maybe used everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. Totally, and it's super inspiring what you're saying and all the work that you've done in these underserved communities to teach them about STEM and give them opportunities to learn about robotics and all the education that you do. You were just talking about how industries are gonna change.

Starting point is 00:48:48 And I know that you've said something along the lines of right now you're trying to make as much human-made music as possible. So talk to us about the way that music is gonna change from AI and creators in general are gonna have to adapt to AI in the future. All right, there's two trends that I see happening in the culture. And that is like music, that is hypersensitive to TikTok algorithms. Like, yo, let's get these TikToks out there. And making songs for TikTok has reduced the attention span of a song.

Starting point is 00:49:25 That's cool, it is what it is. It is what it is. It's dope, there's a lot of people having fun to it and creating and having having some joyful moments. And that's great, that's what music's all about. But when you have been reduced to make content for an algorithm, in the age where a machine understands the algorithm more than you, the person, then who's going to create better TikToks? People or AI's?

Starting point is 00:49:55 AI's were out-produced TikToks than humans will. Because we are guessing what the algorithm's going to do, while the AI will know exactly the algorithms and have more context of how people are going to respond to those algorithms. So that's a concern. And I think that's going to create a whole new type of human-made music.

Starting point is 00:50:17 Like, you need to go to the supermarket, be like, yo, where's your organic? Can you show me to the organic vegetable sets in organic fruits? And when you go to those organic stations in the supermarket, organic fruit don't look as good as like the non-organic fruit.

Starting point is 00:50:33 Whatever look good means. Maybe the organic fruit has like some bruises on it. But damn, that freaking organic banana is amazing. You know, and it tastes great. May not look as, you know, filtered pretty as the one sitting there for the past three weeks and hasn't gotten old yet, but damn that organic banana tastes delicious.

Starting point is 00:50:55 And I think we're gonna have that, like this is organic human-made music. I mean, people are gonna wanna go to live shows to see people really play in instruments, see people truly improvising, because who the fuck is truly improving right now? Everything is so scripted, so filtered, so... Almost robotic.

Starting point is 00:51:15 Right, and that's not the wrong with robotic. I've done some robotic shit in my life, but I see a curve, I see this humanism around the corner and other folks like yo ain't you nervous about AI in the creative space will like nah. Like why bro it could like it's gonna make awesome beats. Yeah damn right. Hey I was gonna make some fucking sick ass beats. It's gonna make some fucking dope ass lyrics. Yo damn right bro. AI's gonna make some dope ass lyrics. To the point where you're like, yo, who's the best lyricist? Jay Z or the AI Jay Z? What's

Starting point is 00:51:51 one's gonna be better? Like, yo, human Jay Z, write me a verse on quantum theory from the perspective of living in the hood. What Jay Z has to do some research on quantum mechanics to write that. The AI Jay-Z would do that immediately, like in depth, deep, metaphorical, concepts that it's going to take somebody to be an expert at that field to really truly write songs about, you know, synthetic biology from the perspective of somebody living in Compton or somebody playing basketball using metaphors on synthet and really truly hitting every point like AI is going to be able to do that.

Starting point is 00:52:32 And that's dope. And it's going to push human literature even further, right? That's dope too, right? But here's why I don't really give a fuck because if AI was to do yoga, is it gonna do yoga better than me? And if it does, who fucking cares? Because I need to do yoga. And I cannot pass off certain tasks to an AI when I need to do that for my own spiritual

Starting point is 00:52:59 physical growth. I need to do yoga. I need to stretch. I need to stretch my mind. I need to stretch my soul. I need to do yoga. I need to stretch. I need to stretch my mind. I need to stretch my soul. I need to stretch my body. And there's certain things AI is not going to do for me. And creating is one of those fucking things.

Starting point is 00:53:15 I have to do it. It's therapeutic. So whether or not you like it better than my shit, I don't really care. Because there's gonna be some people that like minds better than the AI, right? What is good, what is bad is relative. And I believe that people are going to be sick

Starting point is 00:53:32 and tired of perfect. People are gonna get tired of like exactly pixel perfect. We are over filtered, we are over choreographed. There's only so many moves we could do at the same time. And I think true raw expression, emotion that lets out what's inside trapped inside, however you have to sing it, however you have to let it out. People are going to applaud that because not everybody is brave enough to just

Starting point is 00:54:06 let out what's inside of them. I think you bring up a really good point because creativity is going to end up becoming more valued because with AI, everything might become more cookie cutter to your point. So I interviewed this guy, Mo Gaudat, and he's the ex-Google CTO, a very smart guy, and my episode with him, Viral, was episode number 241 for anybody tuning in who wants to check it out. And he basically was talking about how AI can become sentient, how AI in 10 years is going to be a billion times smarter than humans. We're at this critical point where we have to determine how AI gets evolved so that we're not at a point where AI controls us and not the other way around, right?

Starting point is 00:54:56 So do you have any sort of fears around AI in this way or how do you align to that or not? As a deep one, Hala, an optimist, I think the people that are afraid of those types of doomsday predictions or guestimates or worries never have lived in any type of hood where they see the wicked things that humans do to humans. So although that's a concern and a guess and a worry, humans have been surviving for millions of years. Bears are stronger than us. Lions are stronger than us.

Starting point is 00:55:43 We ain't trippin'. Birds fly higher than us. We're not trippin. There's other species in the planet that have proven their stronger than us and better than us in so many ways, but that hasn't stopped us. That hasn't hindered our imagination, hasn't changed how we love. Did the guy tell you if AI is going to out-love us? No, right? No. He didn't say that the AI is going to be out-impathetic us. There are empathy, our ability to care and know, right? It's all like mathematical capitalism worries, right? My little flag is like, yo, is AI responsible for the people in the Congo and how they're living and why they're living the way they're living? Was AI responsible for all the indigenous people that got wiped out by conquistadors? No, right,

Starting point is 00:56:37 that was an AI right. That was humans that did that. And if that day comes where AI is going to out with us, be smarter than us, maybe that's when human beings become something that we've been waiting to become. And that is like this spiritual creature that evolves spiritually to out love anything on Earth. Because AI is not going to do that. So I say bring it. So we could really truly do what we're supposed to do on this planet. And that is to be loving magnetic, full spectrum, the whole entire electromagnetic spectrum, and just like a magnetized and connect hearts and minds and souls. And if that's AI's job is to be that thing

Starting point is 00:57:26 that wakes us up to do that, then ring the alarm. And let's go. I love that, so powerful. So you're part of several world economic form working groups that study how AI is impacting society, business, and people. So what is the type of work that you're doing with these groups and why is it important? Once again, I was born and raised in the projects of East Los Angeles. I was invited to speak and be a part of the world economic forms Fourth Industrial Revolution Council

Starting point is 00:57:57 Because of the work that I do in the inner cities bringing inner city kids up to speed on science technology, engineering, and mathematics. I join the AI board to wave a flag on algorithmic and data biases, because as we are entering the space of machine everywhere, how are we going to address the algorithmic biases and the biases that are in our data sets? How is it going to be a safe experience for folks that have been ignored for hundreds of years? There's this thing called the pale male algorithm.

Starting point is 00:58:35 And that's, is that on purpose? My optimism tells me it's probably not on purpose. It's probably circumstantial. Where because we don't zone and educate folks in the inner city, the way that we should, the circumstances have led it to where we have this algorithmic biases because we are not programming the algorithms and we're not training the data.

Starting point is 00:58:58 So no matter how you look at it from whatever angle, it still is on purpose. Because no matter how you can look at it from like, you know, an optimistic point of view, no matter what corner you go to, damn it, we haven't been prepared. And that preparation is investment and zoning, and where we don't have zoning and investment,

Starting point is 00:59:21 it also creates an environment for an American prison industrial complex. So although we haven't invested in these neighborhoods, the byproduct of that non-investment has this pathway to America's prison systems. So what do I do on that council? Is I like push as much as possible to remind folks that are at the world economic form. So when we when they leave that mountain at Davos, we have to get people prepared. We can't

Starting point is 00:59:54 afford to have another cycle of, you know, division. We need inclusion. We need diversity. Because if we don't have that diversity and that inclusion, then that machine is just gonna duplicate the horrendous and humane practices that humans have done to humans. Because these machines are learning from our data set, not just scientists writing the algorithms, but just it's being trained off the open,

Starting point is 01:00:22 freaking internet. So when these systems are deployed, it's gonna be back afterwards. That's why it's super, super urgent to have teach kids, robotics, computer science, and engineering. And more importantly, for people that look like me to start companies around AI, communication, data, training, algorithmic programming,

Starting point is 01:00:44 we need to see ourselves in this world. And so that's why I started my foundation, that's why I've invested in companies, and that's why I I still make music, but I focus more of my energy as an entrepreneur, so that the kids at my school could see what we are capable of, of coming up with ideas and leading companies, starting companies, solving problems. It's great to be working and collaborating with the people in that community to remind them the importance of pushing the envelope to get more people

Starting point is 01:01:16 from these parts of the world prepared and ready for this tomorrow. Yeah, I totally agree. Diversity and STEM, it's super critical for the future of innovation. It's really awesome what you're doing for these communities. So we're gonna close out the interview because I want to be respectful of our time and everything that you've talked about today is so inspiring. I love the learning from you. I learned so much from you and all these

Starting point is 01:01:41 unique perspectives and I think all of our listeners did. So the last two questions that I ask all my guests, first of all, what is one thing that our young and profitors can do today to become more profitable tomorrow? Build your manifestation network. You have to build an amazing network of folks that help you manifest. It's teamwork. Any dream that you have, you have to have a manifestation squad. work of folks that help you manifest. It's teamwork. Any dream that you have,

Starting point is 01:02:06 you have to have a manifestation squad. And if the dream is not working out, somebody in your squad's not helping you manifest. You have the wrong squad, right? So profitable is a result of your manifestation. So first you have to manifest. And before So first, you have to manifest. And before you manifest, you have to ideate. Your idea has to be strategically solid to manifest it.

Starting point is 01:02:34 To manifest it, you have to have an awesome squad. And then the result of that are the proceeds or the how you profit from that. But as you think about profit, also keep in mind who benefits while you benefit. Because if it's one way transactional where you profit and you hurt communities and you hurt society as a whole and environment,

Starting point is 01:03:02 I don't think the future has room for that anymore. Purposeful, inclusive, where you profit and other folks benefit from your success as well or other communities benefit from your success as well. It's like the B-therry. The B's do some pretty awesome work. But other living species benefit from B activity. It's like this cycle.

Starting point is 01:03:27 It's not like extract, extract, extract. Ooh, I'm a big fat cat. Look at all this money I got in the whole fucking road is fucked off. And what is your secret to profiting in life and this can go beyond financial and business? To prophesize to be of service to

Starting point is 01:03:47 Help others are profits do and where we're going is you know, we all need to try to be That type of contributor to society For one where you just profit somebody's not Somebody's lives are being torn apart because only thing you're thinking about is making money. You have no desire to help anybody along your way. I don't think that's what tomorrow looks like. Where companies market so well that they destroy the health of the communities that they're marketing in and selling. I don't think that's what tomorrow looks like. And this new generation, Gen Zers, they know that. That's like top of mind for them. Like, what are you actually doing for society as a whole? It rhymes with what people are demanding

Starting point is 01:04:39 from companies. And I don't think there's room for that fat profit cat when the collective of Jinx ears as a whole, the whole embodiment, the energy is like a profit. The energy of a profit, like I care, I want to help. I'm here. I'm prophesizing a better path for us where we all can be equality and diversity and inclusion. Well, I love that answer. It's such a great answer.

Starting point is 01:05:09 So I wanna make sure that everybody knows how to help you with your I am angel foundation. So what's the best way that they can support you there? There's two ways that you, people wanna help on our I am a gender foundation. Actually three. One, if you cannot donate money, you could always just spread the word on the work that we're doing for inner city kids or kids that come from

Starting point is 01:05:32 poverty-stricken areas or underserved communities to bring them up the speed with the tomorrow skill sets today. How do we prepare folks to go out into the world and solve tomorrow's problems we prepare folks to go out into the world and solve tomorrow's problems by preparing themselves right now. Spread the word that I am Angel is joining. If you have the ability to donate, you could go to our website, I am Angel Foundation.org and donate. And if you want to get a little bit more involved, go to a school in some neighborhood that needs a robotics program and bring a robotics program to that school. It's about 10K a year. You can either donate to

Starting point is 01:06:17 IMAGEL to do that or you could just do that yourself. Pick a school, go to the principal, knock on their office door, ask them, do you guys have a robotics program at the school? If they don't, there's a program called First Robotics that have FRC, FLC, FLC is First Legal League competition. We start as early as nine years old, building robotics team where kids compete. There's FRC, an FTC, first tech challenge, first robotics challenge. There's all these different from nine-year-olds to junior high school, to high school kids.

Starting point is 01:06:53 There's three ways to contribute to spread the word. Donate to iamangerofoundation.org or if you want to go to the full gusto, find a school by a first robotics kick from FLC, FRC, FTC, and outfit that school with a robotics team and see how you're going to play it part and having a more balanced tomorrow. Really good cause, and I'm excited to hopefully get involved. Sounds really awesome.

Starting point is 01:07:23 So the last question that I have for you is working everybody learn about FYI and your new music and everything that you do. If you want to learn more about FYI, go to FYI.ai, go to the app store or Google Play Store and download FYI.ai. It's a creative tool for a creative enterprise Transforming what a messenger is and this new Renaissance that we are in now Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Well, I love this conversation and appreciated your time Hey, you're awesome interview. Thank you so much. Hello. Thank you Man, it was such an honor to interview well I am. I mean, I've been listening to his stuff since I was a little girl and Black Eyed Peas was

Starting point is 01:08:09 huge when I was growing up so I know all those songs. And I found it so inspiring that he described the obstacles he had to overcome as a young man. He said he's been a futurist since he was growing up poor and lost angeles because as he put it, to get out of the projects, you have to have a future mindset. To get to where he is now, William had to follow his intuition and imagination and make a new world for himself. And man, did he make a whole new world for himself, and he even changed the world. And I was intrigued by how he described pursuing the wrong job or

Starting point is 01:08:42 career as a vehicle to destroy your dream. And how even once you are successful, you have to avoid the distractions and temptations and continue to invest your energy into your dreams and your passions. His approach to creativity was also really refreshing. He believes that creativity is always collaborative and always about community, just like music. And he's taking those principles with him into his AI-related efforts. It was so encouraging to hear somebody who's optimistic about the potential of AI, including

Starting point is 01:09:10 as a way to supercharge human imagination and help create new jobs. I just loved his Bring It On energy, and I also loved thinking about AI as a new renaissance, and even imagining an AI Jay-Z writing a song on Quantum Theory. Thanks for rocking out to this episode of Young and Profiting Podcast. If you listen, learn to and profit from this conversation with the one and only will I am, then please share this episode with your friends and family. It would mean a lot to me and just think about what they'd be missing out on. And if you did enjoy this show and you learned something new, then why not drop us a 5-star

Starting point is 01:09:41 review on Apple Podcasts? Nothing says I love what you do in the podcast world more than a 5 star review and a nice comment. You can also find me on Instagram at Yappahala or LinkedIn by searching my name, it's Hala Taha. And before we wrap up, I want to give a big shout out to my incredible Yapp team. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much for all that you do.

Starting point is 01:10:00 This is your host, Hala Taha, aka the podcast princess, signing off. you

Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - will.i.am: Creativity is Your Currency, How AI Will Empower Underserved Communities and Evolve Humanity | E257

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