While will.i.am Has Been Investing In AI, He Still Believes Every Single Person Should Maintain Ownership Of These 3 Things – AfroTech
will.i.am is a long-time investor in AI and wants to implement protocols that protect human creativity.
will.i.am is an investor in AI. As a founder, he launched an AI-powered interactive, conversational media platform called FYI RAiDiO, which allows users to engage with a host on topics such as sports, pop culture, and politics, per AFROTECH™. He also self-funded TRINITY, an all-electric, self‑balancing, single‑passenger three‑wheeler that uses AI agents to guide the driver’s experience, which debuted at CES 2026.
His portfolio also includes Udio, an AI-powered music startup co-founded by Andrew V. Sanchez. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, it is being sued by Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Records for “massive and ongoing infringement.”
“I come from Hip-Hop. And if you heard a song like ‘Pump It,’ I sampled that from Dick Dale, ‘Misirlou,’ and then I wrote my song on top of that and reinforced the drums. So for me to have like a hypercriticism on AI, that samples everything, when I sampled a lot of things to make my songs, that would be hypocritical,” he told Bloomberg. “AI’s just like the world’s biggest sampler. It’s sampled everything. Whether it’s books, language. I think it’s not the technology that you should be like, ‘What’s going on there?’ It’s the business model.”
will.i.am still believes in the value of human-made music, but says there should be systems in place to differentiate that value. He suggests that humans should be concerned about not owning their voices and that there isn’t currently a likeness-or-essence industry.
“Every single person needs to own their data, their essence, their likeness. There needs to be industries. You’ve got to use your imagination and push to have industries to protect people in this new realm that we’re in,” he told the outlet.
He believes human-made content should have its own file format. Right now, AI music or videos are stored in the same MP3/MP4 file as human-made ones. Some kind of lived experience file will help validate the human sweat and creativity that goes into human creation, he expressed.
“Let AI be AI. But what if I just wanted to go in a studio with humans and create? Is it going to be the same file, and why should it … And why should it be worth the same? It should be worth more. Give more incentives for people to create human-made stuff and let AI be AI,” he told Bloomberg.
