Artificial intelligence will take music production to new emotional and personal levels, Black Eyed Peas frontman and technology investor will.i.am (William Adams Jr.) has told Newsweek, calling AI "the ultimate way to create."
Will's musical creativity doesn't have roots at the piano or guitar, where many people start. "I make music because of the computer and AI is just a computer but a billion-fold," he said. "[We are] moving away from short keys and mouses to just mouthing and speaking to the computer."
Today, music stirs emotions for individuals who are able to relate to its themes.
Will said: "Think about 'Ordinary People' [that I] wrote and that John Legend sang.... That was my heartbreak, and people listen to it and it's proximity heartbreak. It's not really your heartbreak. 'I Gotta Feeling' is not your optimism song. That's my optimism song, but you adopted it and thank God for the people that adopted that."
Will envisions a world where anyone can use voice commands to chat with AI to create a song, telling it which ingredients to include. It is similar to how users are generating AI art today using apps like Canva and Stability AI's DreamStudio.
The result will be a more emotionally connective experience because it is based on personal memories and feelings, Will believes. "They are now getting their specific heartbreak, their specific joy song, their specific celebrative moment for their wedding," he said.
"And what's not awesome about a tailor-made suit? When something's made specifically for you...You can do that [with AI] and make everybody feel unique. That's the ultimate joy."
Will believes the next step is using AI to interact with songs. His company FYI recently launched FYI RAiDiO, an AI-infused, interactive conversational media platform. Users can engage with AI-powered voice chat technology to pause songs, audiobooks and sports broadcasts and ask questions relating to what they are listening to.
For example, if a user wonders what a song is about they can ask the AI agent and a conversational result will be generated. Then, they can choose to return to the song with the ability to pick up where they left off.
Mercedes-Benz aims to bring FYI RAiDiO to its vehicles. The automaker is currently beta testing the technology in the U.S. and has plans to make it available to customers via an over-the-air update in select models.