Dennis Gaviola

Article (news)

Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am

Karen Flores

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17564614376859f1555cc-deda-40e2-972c-37b126a87a60.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-dragging"/>Black Eyed Peas&#x27; will.i.am poses beside LG&#x27;s xboom line of speakers as its experiential architect during a press conference in Manila. Karen Flores Layno, ABS-CBN News</div>Many people know William Adams by his stage name, will.i.am, in the American musical group Black Eyed Peas. But beyond building a career as a multi-awarded artist with several Grammys under his belt, will.i.am has also made a name as a tech entrepreneur who has co-founded and invested in several companies. He served as director of creative innovation at Intel and was a founding shareholder in Beats Electronics, creator of the popular Beats By Dre headphones, before it was acquired by Apple in 2014. In 2020, he put up Focus Your Ideas (FYI), an artificial intelligence-powered messaging and productivity platform. One of FYI&#x27;s offerings is RAiDIO.FYI, where listeners can have a more immersive and personalized audio experience with AI hosts and DJs. &quot;It&#x27;s a collaboration messaging platform. We build conversational agents that are AI personas, and through that experience we have this simulated radio experience,&quot; will.i.am told members of the media during his recent visit to Manila ahead of the <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/showbiz/music/2025/8/27/sandara-park-ez-mil-j-rey-soul-join-black-eyed-peas-in-jampacked-show-0140">Black Eyed Peas&#x27; concert</a>.RAiDIO.FYI is integrated in the new line of speakers of the South Korean consumer electronics company LG, which has tapped will.i.am as an &quot;experiential architect.&quot; Drawing from his wealth of experience in the industry, he provided strategic counsel for product development, design, and marketing for the xboom products, four of which have been unveiled earlier this year: the karaoke-ready Stage and the smaller Bounce, the on-the-go Grab, and the Buds for personal audio.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175646159950710.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>The xboom by will.i.am speakers unveiled in a recent launch event in Manila. Handout</div>&quot;They (LG) said, &#x27;We want you to help tune the speakers, make sure it sounds to your specs.&#x27; So I put a team together to help tune it, will.i.am shared. &quot;So I was like, what about the start sound, the pairing sound, can I do all the sounds?&quot;&quot;In my head, I thought it would take a couple of hours... It took me four days because I wanted to make sure [everything was great],&quot; he added. For will.i.am, a good audio experience is important, noting that speakers connect people to art which can come in the form of music, audio books, and podcasts.&quot;If audio is therapeutic, clean and pristine audio is even more therapeutic, because there&#x27;s no frequency loss... This (speaker) is a conduit into other people&#x27;s works of art. It can be music, audio books, or other passion points like podcasts, which are other people&#x27;s way of rinsing out what&#x27;s on their mind,&quot; he pointed out. Through his collaboration with LG and his other tech projects, will.i.am hopes to inspire people like him -- who come from humble beginnings in small communities -- to dip their toes in entrepreneurship, particularly in consumer electronics. &quot;Society tells us that people that come from the inner city, or the province, you can compete in singing, in dancing, as an influencer, as a model, or as an athlete. Very rarely, just Dr. Dre... not many folks are leaning in the area of consumer electronics,&quot; he observed. &quot;Hopefully someone sees this collaboration and says, &#x27;I want to do my own thing.&#x27; Or maybe, &#x27;I can do better.&#x27;&quot;<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17564626747483 (3).jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Black Eyed Peas&#x27; will.i.am in a promotional image for LG&#x27;s xboom. Handout</div><div>AI as a tool, not a threat</div>Instead of being threatened by AI, will.i.am instead saw it as a <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2025/5/9/job-hunting-try-these-ai-tools-that-can-make-your-life-easier-1540">tool that can elevate human creativity</a> -- and even started a company powered by it.And while he did acknowledge that <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2025/4/3/ai-could-impact-40-percent-of-jobs-worldwide-un-2137">AI will replace certain jobs</a>, the artist-entrepreneur stressed that there is always a way forward. He noted as an example how a drum machine -- instead of a real drummer -- is heard in most of the &quot;hot songs&quot; on streaming platforms today.&quot;But a human made the beat,&quot; will.i.am said. &quot;A person that was once a drummer is now a full-fledged producer. So with the invention of the drum machine, or the sampler, came new creators.&quot;&quot;If you&#x27;re just stuck on yesterday, you fear the drum machine, the sampler. But if you are pushing the imagination a thousand miles an hour, that drum machine, that sampler, these will help you execute your ideas,&quot; he stressed. &quot;So if you&#x27;re stuck on yesterday, yes, you have the right to be fearful of AI. But if you are a hypercreative, AI is your tool.&quot;For will.i.am, now is the time for big ideas. He hopes that more people will push themselves to be more &quot;audacious&quot; in their thinking, similar to how companies like Apple pushed the envelope nearly 20 years ago with the touchscreen iPhone.&quot;The Nokia phone, Blackberry, Motorola, these were like the giants. And then there&#x27;s Apple, a company that didn&#x27;t make phones but dreamed really big. They took the keyboard off the phone which was kind of audacious. Like where are you going to type? They said no, you type on the screen. That was insanity at the time. But that big dream changed everything,&quot; he said. &quot;Here we are now, 2025. If you&#x27;re a dreamer, what are you dreaming, how are you dreaming? Are you trying to make it like how it was yesterday? No, you need to be thinking about what can happen tomorrow,&quot; he added.

Beyond building a career as a multi-awarded artist with multiple Grammys under his belt, will.i.am. has also made a name as a tech entrepreneur who has co-founded and invested in several companies.

Beyond building a career as a multi-awarded artist with multiple Grammys under his belt, will.i.am. has also made a name as a tech entrepreneur who has co-founded and invested in several companies.

Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am on being a tech entrepreneur and why he isn't afraid of AI

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Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am on being a tech entrepreneur and why he isn't afraid of AI

Karen Flores Layno,

ABS-CBN News

Published Aug 29, 2025 06:49 PM PHT

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Updated Aug 31, 2025 12:18 PM PHT

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