Super Soul Special: will.i.am: The Future of Social Media and Artificial Intelligence

Summary

Podcast Summary: Oprah’s Super Soul Special – will.i.am: The Future of Social Media and Artificial Intelligence

Date: April 8, 2026
Host: Oprah Winfrey
Guest: will.i.am (musician, entrepreneur, futurist)

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Main Theme / Purpose

In this episode, Oprah sits down with will.i.am to discuss the intersection of technology, education, social media, and artificial intelligence (AI). The episode explores how technology is shaping society, the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, the impact of social media on manners and humanity, and will.i.am’s optimistic philosophy on using technology to improve lives, especially for underserved communities.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

will.i.am’s Evolution: From Music to Tech and Philanthropy

• Music Career Transition: Will.i.am clarifies he is not retired from music but less engaged in the traditional music business, focusing instead on technology and social impact projects.
  • “We haven’t done it [music] in eight years, but we have a new project that’s virtual reality and augmented reality.” (02:26)
• Giving Back Through Education: Inspired by the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” will.i.am became deeply invested in improving educational opportunities for underserved youth, blending college preparation with robotics programs.
  • “I just went out looking for super men and women.” (04:12)
  • Developed programs leading to a 100% graduation rate focused on STEM fields (robotics, engineering, mathematics, computer science). (04:46–05:58)
• Ripple Effect of Philanthropy: Inspired to move earlier in children’s educational journeys, adopting and mentoring youth from junior high onward.
  • “Now those 60 kids are about to graduate college next year… 80%… going to school for robotics, engineering, computer science, mathematics...” (05:58)

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Pattern Recognition: From Music to Society

• Right Brain/Left Brain Talent: Oprah quotes Jim Gianopoulos on will.i.am’s rare ability to combine creativity and logical thinking.
  • “Will has the most advanced right brain and left brain of anyone I know.” (07:01)
• Pattern Matching Mindset: Will.i.am explains how his musical skill in finding patterns translates into recognizing patterns in language, culture, and social issues.
  • “My brain just sees these patterns and patterns.” (09:07)
  • Example of noticing linguistic similarities (“obrigado” and “arigato”) and applying the concept to understand social issues like neighborhood poverty.

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Artificial Intelligence: Utopia, Dystopia, or Opportunity?

• Hollywood’s Influence on AI Fears: Will.i.am unpacks how films like “The Terminator” and “The Matrix” foster AI-related fear versus the optimism shown in “Star Wars.”
  • “Star Wars to me is the optimism around robots and machines and AI that assist humanity.” (10:27)
• AI as a Tool: Will.i.am views AI as a tool, neither inherently good nor evil—its impact depends on human values and design.
  • “So can anything. Yeah, it’s a tool. We have to look at it as a tool. And how are we going to make sure that tool serves humanity?” (10:43)
• Personal AI and Data Sovereignty:
  • Data has surpassed money in power; tech companies owning your data is likened to historical monarchies.
  • “Data being bought… these companies know more about you than the government in the country you live in, by the way.” (15:39)
  • Will.i.am predicts a future where everyone will have their own personal AI to manage their data and optimize their lives.
  • “If my data’s mine, I need my own AI. Mine that knows me, gives me this feeling that it cares about me and my home.” (14:45)
• Disruption of Big Data Giants:
  • Likens disruption to Uber’s impact on transportation, urging disruption of “data monarchies” (Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple):
  • “A new wave is going to disrupt the data giants.” (15:57)

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Technology, Spirituality, and Connection

• Spiritual ‘Antenna’:
  • Will.i.am draws a parallel between physical/practical technology and human spirituality.
  • “We as human beings are…in this idle cruise control where our spirituality is not…it’s like if there was a WiFi bar on how connected you are spiritually. Most folks probably have one bar, if that.” (12:23–12:54)
  • Bill Clinton once told him, “Your antenna’s up,” referencing spiritual receptivity. (12:58)
• Fourth Industrial Revolution: Will.i.am frames current technological advancement as an opportunity—and a spiritual awakening.
  • “This fourth industrial revolution that we’re in.” (13:31)
• Hope for AI-Assisted Humanity:
  • Personal intelligence (not just super-intelligence) as a means to enhance real connection and well-being.
  • “What the phone does really good…It mapped the whole planet. But it hasn’t mapped me and people yet.” (27:38–27:51)
  • “Optimism I have with this. Not super intelligence, just personal intelligence for me...that system has to be precise to give me what I need when I need it in the form of a conversation.” (29:58–30:33)

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Social Media, Manners, and Modern Rudeness

• Change in Manners & Human Behavior:
  • Will.i.am and Oprah critique how social media has eroded interpersonal manners and increased selfishness.
  • “If Oprah was walking down the street…people would whip their phones out before they say, are you okay? …The likes don’t benefit you…it benefits the four Data Monarchy.” (21:22–22:53)
  • No new language exists yet for the new forms of rudeness brought by technology—“digital rudeness.”
• Parenting in a Digital Age:
  • Will.i.am reflects on generational technology shifts and how parenting philosophies must adapt.
  • “If you had to raise us in this era, could you have—No, boy. …Society is now dictating how parents are raising their kids.” (25:20–25:21)

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Technology’s Role in Education and Equality

• Encouraging Diverse Innovation:
  • Will.i.am stresses that people from marginalized backgrounds must become creators/designers of future technologies.
  • “My whole mission is, how do you get more inner city kids, ethnic folks, building and designing tomorrow? Because it’s going to be built and designed anyway…100 years ago, my great, great uncle was not a part of the conversation…” (17:08–18:45)
• Debate Over Connection vs. Disconnection:
  • Both acknowledge technology connects and disconnects humans; the challenge is to maximize the former and minimize the latter.
  • “Debated…whether technology connects us or disconnects us…I think it’s both. How can we use it?...” (27:12)

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Societal Business of Poverty

• Systemic Disinvestment in Poor Communities:
  • Will.i.am explains how underinvestment and surveillance in poor communities create an economy around incarceration and bad health.
  • “There are scouts that go into inner cities that check GPA…decide where they’re going to build the next prison…wherever there’s three to five thousand dollars a year for their education, those kids are subject to bad food, no financial literacy…that’s a business.” (33:08–34:11)
  • Calls for celebrities and those with resources to “adopt their school” and invest directly in their home communities. (34:11–36:08)
• Combatting the Business of Poverty with Education and Philanthropy
  • “So let’s educate our kids. Either change how school Districts invest in a child or do what I do.” (34:59)

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Personal Philosophy and Optimism

• Optimism as Active Creation:
  • “When a door closes, I’m going to go build another door…You could be an optimist that’s still waiting for other opportunities, or you could be an optimist that makes opportunities.” (36:12–36:47)
• Grounding in Spirituality Across Time:
  • Will.i.am meditates/prays to his younger and older self, framing time as a loop and guidance as intertemporal.
  • “When I pray and meditate, I meditate and pray to my 18-year-old self right now who’s lost because he doesn’t know how to get here. So I send him GPS coordinates…” (40:45)

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Technology Innovations and Future Visions

• Tech Entrepreneurship:
  • Will.i.am details founding I Am Plus, developing AI-powered voice operating systems for telecoms and working towards consumer products focused on data empowerment. (19:19–19:57)
• Augmented Reality in Education and Media:
  • “Masters of the Sun” is a graphic novel paired with an AR app scoring collaboration with Hans Zimmer, reimagining books for the next generation. (36:50–39:08)
• Concerns about AI Bias and Social Value:
  • Will.i.am raises ethical questions about AI programming and societal bias, especially as AI makes life-or-death decisions (e.g., autonomous vehicles).
  • “If you’re in a car, self driving car, AI and…walking across the street is Jamal…The AI knows that Jamal…is only worth negative $2,000. Whose life is being saved and protected? That algorithm is being programmed now.” (42:49–43:16)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On philanthropy:
  • “Isn’t it amazing how you start out wanting to…lift somebody up, and you end up getting lifted yourself. The reward is far more than you ever imagined.” – Oprah (06:19)
  • “It puts you on a straight arrow.” – will.i.am (06:34)
• On the future of AI:
  • “You should always take optimism over worry and fear…Their concern is not that AI is bad, it could be bad. But then you have to ask, why will it go wrong? It will go wrong if education is not matched with investment for AI. If we have a dumb society, that’s when it goes wrong.” – will.i.am (44:56)
• On optimism:
  • “When a door closes, I’m gonna go build another door.” – will.i.am (36:22)
• On social media and rudeness:
  • “Now it’s flipped that if you don’t allow me to invade your personal space… then you’re being rude for not letting me take a selfie.” – Oprah (24:48)
  • “In the name of freedom, I no longer have freedom of what I want to do now.” – will.i.am (25:02)
• On “thumbing” through life:
  • “We’re thumbing through life.” – Oprah (30:33)
  • “Like, not dummies, thumbies going through life…” – will.i.am (30:34)
• On “Masters of the Sun” & AR:
  • “What you thought a book was in the past will change tomorrow. Where I could go deeper into what that sentence was about or hidden gems behind that phrase…” – will.i.am (39:08)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• will.i.am’s shift to technology & education philanthropy: 02:26–06:19
• Pattern recognition & life philosophy: 07:01–10:27
• AI in pop culture; AI as opportunity/tool: 10:27–13:31
• Data sovereignty, personal AI future: 13:41–16:11
• Disruption of “data monarchies”: 15:32–16:11
• Technology, spirituality, and “spiritual WiFi bars”: 12:19–13:31
• Social media’s effect on manners: 21:13–25:21
• Education investments & the business of poverty: 33:08–36:08
• Will.i.am’s optimism & creating opportunity: 36:12–36:47
• AR books & the reinvention of reading: 36:50–39:08
• AI ethics and bias in autonomous technology: 42:49–43:16
• Call for optimism over fear in the age of AI: 44:56–45:53

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Conclusion

This episode of Super Soul is a rich exploration of the crossroads between technology, humanity, and hope. Will.i.am’s vision is optimistic yet grounded, calling for personal responsibility, education, and conscious engagement with technology. He advocates for a future where personal AI, ethical technology, and empowered youth can create a more humane and connected society, even as we confront the risks and disruptions ahead.

Recommended For: Listeners interested in technology, ethics, social change, education reform, personal growth, and the philosophical challenges of our digital age.

Transcript

[Oprah Winfrey]

Hello.

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[Oprah Winfrey]

I'm Oprah Winfrey. Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. I believe that one of the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time. Taking time to be more fully present. Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right now. Hey, babe, eye open. It finally happened. Hey.

[Jack Myers]

Yes.

[Will.i.am]

Thank you for having me.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, so everybody knows you started out this founder of this supergroup, the Black Eyed Peas. And since then you keep rising and you keep growing and it literally feels like you are expanding. So you are a consultant, you are investor, you're entrepreneur, you're advocate, you're an activist, you're a philanthropist. You're like a modern day Renaissance man. I read where you used to spend how many hours a week devoted to music for a period of time? And. And then fewer hours a week devoted to music for a period of time. I just have to ask you this, are you retired from music?

[Will.i.am]

I'm retired. No, I'm not retired from music. I just don't want to be in the music Business. I love making music. I'm talking about me personally. Like Black Eyed Peas. Yep. We make music. We haven't done it in eight years, but we have a new project that's virtual reality and augmented reality. But I just think there's so much technology and there's so many young kids that are doing awesome stuff to try to compete the way that we used to. I don't know. I think we're supposed to do something different.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

Or birth new cats. Like, I signed with Jimmy Iving when I was. He was my age right now.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

I was 20 something, he was 40 something. And now I'm 40 something. Am I supposed to, like, now? I think I'm supposed to be, like, developing cats and believing in kids the way Jimmy believes in us. It's about this narrative where I saw this movie called Waiting for Superman. And that movie just was the beginning of this inner transformation where, you know, it talked about education, the decline of education in America and our position as a leader in the world and how we're dead last. Were almost last in education. And one of the schools that they highlighted in the film was Roosevelt. And that's a school my mom went to. And that was a school that I would have went to if my mom didn't send me, you know, hour and a half away from school ever since I was seven. And the thing that hurt my heart was it was waiting for Superman, like waiting for a fictitious character to solve.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Show up and solve this problem. So I remember we did that on the show and. Yeah, I remember that film Transforming. Yeah. For a lot of people.

[Will.i.am]

Yeah. So I just went out looking for super men and women.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

And met Lorraine Powell jobs and asked her if she could bring her program, college track, to Boyle Heights, the ghetto that I'm from. And since then, the program has been successful in Southern California. I now sit on her board. Dean came in with First Robotics, and I asked Lorraine if I could couple robotics with her college track program. Because the last thing I want to do is send kids to college. And then they graduate with a diploma in debt.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

So now our kids are going to school with robotics degrees with robotics as their major in engineering and mathematics and technology, computer science. And it's been great. We have 100% graduation rate. We've been doing it for eight years now.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I think it was 2008 or nine or something. You came on the Oprah show and we had taken these young boys who didn't have an opportunity to go to college and.

[Will.i.am]

From Delaware.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. And you gave them an opportunity to go to college. And I think you were motivated by that moment. I could feel in that moment that something happened when you met them on stage and well connected.

[Will.i.am]

It was that moment where I was like, okay, I need to do more of this. And we started in high school and, you know, I came in their lives because of the Oprah Winfrey Show. Transitioning from high school to college. I need to go sooner. So I went out and went to my ghetto and adopted a junior high school kids that are 13 years old. And it was 60 kids. And now those 60 kids are about to graduate college next year.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Wow.

[Will.i.am]

And they're all going to school. 80% of them. Sorry, 80% of those kids are going to school for robotics, engineering, computer science, mathematics, and it's great. And now we have 670 kids. But it all started off 10 years ago at the Opal Infra show.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Isn't it amazing how you start out wanting to. I found this so much often for myself. You start out wanting to offer your services, you know, lift somebody up, and you end up getting lifted yourself. That the reward is far more than you ever imagined.

[Will.i.am]

No, it puts you on a straight arrow.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

To where it's like, people would be like, yo, Will, you want to go to this one party? What party's that? Nah, I can't go to there.

[Oprah Winfrey]

No.

[Will.i.am]

Why not? Nah, nah, nah. I just can't go to that party because I'm now responsible for 600 some odd kids. And if it doesn't reflect what I'm really, truly passionate about, then I can't really be rocking like that.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So you actively seek out some of the coolest people in the world. I love what Jim Giannopoulos, chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, said about you. He says will has the most advanced right brain and left brain of anyone I know. Usually people are logical and analytical or intuitive and creative, but Will is each to such a high degree. He's a creative genius who thinks pragmatically about the way the world really works. I agree. You don't think like anybody else. How would you describe the way your mind works?

[Will.i.am]

Well, music taught me how to pattern match.

[Oprah Winfrey]

What does that mean?

[Will.i.am]

So matching patterns. It's like, hey, I noticed that people say obrigado in Brazil.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

And they say arigado in Japan. I wonder why that. Does anybody realize that, you know, obrigado and arigado is similar and, you know, phonetically. And my mind then wants to research on the connection between Brazil and Japan.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Right.

[Will.i.am]

And turns out Japanese love Samba and bossa nova. And does the Portuguese play any part in what's happening in Brazil? And the adoption, what came first, Obrigado or arigado?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

And a form of that is no different than making songs and finding rhymes and metaphors and similes and then seeing like the patterns in inner cities on connecting poverty with, you know, zoning. And, you know, whenever you have like a liquor store at a check cashing at a motel, fast food restaurants and a strip mall, it's connected to, you know, these kids that don't have a way out and in and out of juvenile hall and eventually jail or prison in their lifetime because you don't have the same zoning configuration. And in and out of juvenile hall and prison when you don't have these strip balls. And, you know, it's connected to, you know, investment in a child from 7 to 18.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So pattern matching in music, and then you see it, you see it in. That's the way your brain works.

[Will.i.am]

My brain just sees these patterns and patterns.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So you're at the forefront of what is being called the next industrial revolution. That's AI, Artificial intelligence and robotics. I think people get, they get really fearful of that term, don't you? Because it sets off all sorts of alarm bells in people's psyche. What does it mean to you? Can you explain for everybody watching and listening to us doesn't already know what that means for us? AI.

[Will.i.am]

So it actually is movies. Hollywood did an amazing job with creating this dystopian future where robots and AI take over. And that's when you have one company. So the pattern matching comes in. When I, when I look at these films, I'm like, hey, wow. People are afraid of the Terminator because there's one company that dominates. People are afraid of the Matrix because there's one company that dominates, but they're not afraid of Star wars. You have three CPO, RTD2, all these other types of AI and robots. But the thing that they're afraid of in that film is the Empire. Because when you think of these robots and this AI in these films that have created this fear, you don't know the intentions of the company. And it's one thing dominating over all society.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

And Star wars to me is the optimism around robots and machines and AI that assist humanity.

[Oprah Winfrey]

But it can be equally dangerous.

[Will.i.am]

So can water.

[Oprah Winfrey]

True, true that.

[Will.i.am]

So can anything. Yeah, it's a tool. We have to look at it as a tool. And how are we going to make sure that tool serves humanity?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah, well, I'm just, I'M just saying. Equally dangerous. Stephen Hawking, the genius physicist who died this year, says success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last unless we learn how to avoid the risks. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, says, our greatest existential threat. I think there's potentially a dangerous outcome there. Microsoft co founder Bill Gates says, I'm in the camp that is concerned about superintelligence. Are you in that camp? Nope. Yes.

[Will.i.am]

Superintelligence. Yeah. I think it's our test as creatives. Humanity creating something that potentially will be more powerful than humanity. That's super intelligence. This artificial intelligence stuff that we are dealing with now is, is a nice tool. Yeah, but it's not totally conscious, but a nice tool.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Now, many people fear can lead to a super tool later.

[Will.i.am]

Well, then we should have never had the Internet. We should all get off social media right now.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Right this minute. Right, Right.

[Will.i.am]

If that's right.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So it's coming. Right. So we just need to prepare ourselves.

[Will.i.am]

I think for a long time we've ignored our, you know, our God given technology. Spirituality.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Right, and is that how you refer to spirituality? Our God given technology?

[Will.i.am]

So we're hardware.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

And there's something that fuels our hardware.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

And that's our spirituality. So a phone has some type of operating system that allows it to function. And we as human beings are, you know, in this, this idle. I'm talking about mass society.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

We're in this idle cruise control where our spirituality is not. It's like if there was a bar, if you had a WI fi bar on how connected you are spiritually. Most folks are probably have one bar, if that. Yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

If you were measuring it by your. Yeah, by the bar. That's interesting.

[Will.i.am]

My intent is up. That was one of the things, one of the first things. Bill Clinton, when I first met Bill Clinton, he was like, your antenna's up. I'm like, antennas up. Why would he. Out of all the things, why would he say that? Because I always, my close circle of friends, we always would use that. Is your antenna up? What are you tuned into and how well connected are you? And are you growing spiritually? I think this is a shove and a push to wake us up spiritually this time. This fourth industrial revolution that we're in.

[Oprah Winfrey]

All right, so I read somewhere where you see a time when everybody will have their own personal AI. What does that future look like? What does that look like?

[Will.i.am]

Okay, so if I were to say, hey, Oprah, hey, who's more powerful?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

BBVA Barclays, bank of America, all combined.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

Or Google. You would say Google, right?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Will.i.am]

Right. Okay. If I were to say Swiss bank, hbc, Wells Fargo, all combined, or Facebook.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah, I'd say Facebook, yeah.

[Will.i.am]

So here are three companies, six of which. Well, three different banks that their business is to hold people's money.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

So something that holds people's money, grows people's money, saves people's money.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

Isn't as powerful as someone who doesn't take any money from you. So Facebook takes no money from you, by the way. It's a product that's for free.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

That's because data is more powerful than money. So you can't really know anything about me if I just put all my money on a table, that my money is not going to tell you who I am, that's not going to tell you where I go, unless you have receipts on what I've spent.

[Oprah Winfrey]

But your data does. Tells everything.

[Will.i.am]

So most people on the planet, they have no clue what they're doing when they're on social media. They don't know whose company they're growing, they don't know how intelligent they're making the company. They just have this thing for free. Meanwhile, data is power. And if you're going to have access to your data, and your data is to enrich your life, not only you as an individual, but all your data doppelgangers and your community, then you need to have some type of data scientist that's yours. Right. And that would be a personal AI. So if my data's mine, I need my own AI. Mine that knows me, gives me this feeling that it cares about me and my home. And all these companies are now rushing into your home, they're rushing into your house to. To know everything about how you live, which would be.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So you weren't surprised when you heard about the data being stolen from Facebook at all?

[Will.i.am]

Data being bought.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Bought. I mean, bought.

[Will.i.am]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. So these companies know more about you than the government in the country you live in, by the way. So I think the same way Uber has disrupted transportation, whether it's MTA or Metros or taxis.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Taxis.

[Will.i.am]

A new wave is going to disrupt the data giants.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And we need disruption.

[Will.i.am]

Right.

[Oprah Winfrey]

It's what you think. Right. We need disruption.

[Will.i.am]

We have, like these data monarchies.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

So if you lived back in the day and there was a king and a queen, the king and the queen owned everything. The land you lived on, they provided you with mortar, they gave you the, you know, the building knowledge on how to build buildings. And when you built buildings, most likely the king and queen owned them. And that's what we are in right now.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Well, what's fascinating to me is that you're so open and receptive to it, and there are a lot of people in their 40s, 50s, 60s who are like, people were probably when automobiles first started, and they're like, oh, I'm gonna just keep my horse. I'm just gonna keep driving my horse. Or when people said, you know, now we're gonna have telephone service. Or, you know, people are usually afraid of change. It's the nature of being humans, is that you like to keep things the way they are.

[Will.i.am]

Yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

So every hundred years, it turns out every hundred years there's this leap.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

So a hundred years ago today, Edison and Tesla were battling on who's going to connect New York and Chicago and try to, you know, turn the Niagara Falls into a energy source. And JP Morgan and Westinghouse were investing in them around 100 years ago. Now every single city in the world, more or less, is powered with electricity. We have the ability. That same company that Edison started, General Electric, launched RCA, which is Radio Corporation of America, and NTSC. Now we have radio and TV and new ways of connecting with the Internet and 2000. And right now, a different type of electricity exists. Now you could talk to it. Now you can talk to electricity. You get your phone, you say, hey, Siri, you go in the house. Those little devices have some type of power in it, and the electricity understands human utterance, speech. And that's going to change how we interact with machines and things. And, you know, my whole mission is, how do you get more inner city kids, ethnic folks, building and designing tomorrow? Because it's going to be built and designed anyway. Just like 100 years ago, my great, great uncle was not a part of the conversation. How the world was going to go. They didn't participate in the making.

[Oprah Winfrey]

They were sitting at the table where any decisions were being made. Yes.

[Will.i.am]

So that's the reason why I try to encourage my kids. Hey, you guys better be a part of this conversation. It's gonna be designed anyway.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So you were an initial investor in Beats with Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. And when that company was sold, you used the money and created your own tech company called I Am Plus. And it's described, I've heard, as this kind of futuristic think tank. It's a sort of modern incubator. You gather together developers and content makers and students and scientists and design. So what are you creating In IM plus.

[Will.i.am]

So we've created an artificial intelligence voice operating system. And right now we are helping augment Deutsche Telekom's customer service in Austria. So our system speaks German, English, Spanish, French. It's learning to speak Mandarin and Cantonese as we speak. Our developers are getting it prepared for that. So, yeah, so we augmented call centers. We are working on our consumer product that we're going to launch shortly. And it's in and around. The things I was talking about before is how do we empower people to retain their data and giving people personal AI?

[Oprah Winfrey]

You said that right now we're living in an inhumane age and the human age is about to come, but we're going to need assistance to get there. And that's why I'm optimistic about artificial intelligence. Maybe we need a different type of intelligence so we can see the human in us. Do you. Do you believe that artificial intelligence can help us become more human?

[Will.i.am]

I want to believe that, but the more stuff I see on TV with people just doing the worst things to each other is. It's disheartening and it tries to diminish and like, break my optimism. But I remain optimistic. It's coming.

[Oprah Winfrey]

You're talking about the divisiveness that we're all feeling.

[Will.i.am]

Just this, like in the world, this angst, there's this fuzz, this frequency of like, it's not off people.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Will.i.am]

If you put your antenna up, you feel it. It's like this unsettled. Yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

What does it feel like to you? It feels like to me that we've lost a spiritual core, that we've. We've forgotten who we are. That we are so disconnected from source energy. Whatever name you want to give to that. What does it feel like to you? That's what it feels like to me. And that everybody's just sort of playing into each other's hysteria.

[Will.i.am]

For me, it feels like the parents are not here and the kids are acting up

[Oprah Winfrey]

all over the world.

[Will.i.am]

All over the world. It's like, where are the parents at? It just. It feels adolescent. It feels like, you know, carelessness, selfishness at the extreme. Like if Oprah was walking down the street and was to trip, people would whip their phones out before they say, are you okay? If I was to walk down the stairs and fall, people pull out their phone before they say, hey, are you alright? And that's just for what, though. So they could post it for likes. And the likes don't benefit you at the end of the day. It benefits the four Data Monarchy. There's these four kingdoms called Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple. And in the order that I said, Apple is a little bit more open and controlled with their, with their data. They're not as data hungry because they sell a product. So there's a part of me that is optimistic, but then I'm concerned on, just pay attention, go to the restaurant and just see people together. And they're not together. Just see people how they. When they're walking down the street. Which is great because I'm on the phone too. But there is no type of, like, manners anymore. There's this digital route and you see it when you travel and people come up to you and just throw a

[Oprah Winfrey]

phone in your face and expect a selfie.

[Will.i.am]

And expect what? And there's no word for it. There's no rude. There's no word for it. Like, if I burp, it's like, wow, that was rude, Will.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

If I had gas, I would hold my gas because I don't want to bust out in front of everybody in the room. Yeah, but when it comes to, like, other needs, we have no more manners. It's like this disregard to anybody's personal space. And it has nothing to do with there's like invasion of privacy and then there's invasion of privacy. If I select to go on social media does not mean that I should get rushed and bombarded by everyone else's desires to capture moments. Right. And that's why I think we need some type of on, off switch in the form of a technology that is looking out for me. I should be able to tell my

[Oprah Winfrey]

now we need a technology to look out for us. Why can't we do it ourselves?

[Will.i.am]

Because we don't have the time of the day.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Well, why, you don't think that there is a need to return to some kind of value system that says this is rude, invading a person's personal space. I remember walking across the bridge during the movie Selma and this woman was screaming at me about, get me a selfie, give me a selfie. And I physically could not do it. And I was just like, take the picture. Just go ahead, take the picture. And she said, I don't want a picture of you. I want a picture of me in the picture with you. And then I couldn't get to her. And then she had much, much, much, much attitude. Which that has happened to me several times. I'm sure it's happened to YouTube. People have much attitude because it's. It's like you are. It's now flipped that if you don't allow me to invade your personal space. Then you're being rude for not letting

[Will.i.am]

me take a selfie. It's a new reversal. What's wrong with you?

[Oprah Winfrey]

You won't let me have a selfie.

[Will.i.am]

Yeah. Are you fooling yourself, Oprah? That's why I didn't like you. It's like, what? Are you serious here? It's got to the point where, you know, in the name of freedom, I no longer have freedom of what I want to do now. Cause I'm supposed to. Like, I asked my mom, like, ma, if you had to raise us in this era, could you have no boy?

[Oprah Winfrey]

She said, no boy.

[Will.i.am]

Because society is now dictating how parents are raising their kids. Like, my mom raised me the way my grandma raised her. And those are three different times. Two of them were synonymous with each other. Like my grandma that's like fresh out of slavery. She was born in 1920. Her grandma was a slave.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

My mom was born in 1950. There were similarities because there was, you know, Jim Crow. Yeah. And they migrated from the south to Southern California. So here I am. I'm video game kid. My mom was TV kid.

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My.

[Will.i.am]

My grandma was radio kid. My grandma's mom was picking you in Mississippi.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

Picking things.

[Tim Spengler]

Leadership used to mean having all the answers. But today's best leaders embody a more human approach.

[Jack Myers]

I'm Jack Meyers.

[Tim Spengler]

And I'm Tim Spengler.

[Jack Myers]

Tim and I have spent our careers inside media, marketing and culture.

[Tim Spengler]

And we partnered with the Acast Creator Network to start Lead Human to answer one simple question. What does it really look like to lead in this AI dominated world?

[Will.i.am]

The biggest tip for being a creator. It's a job.

[Oprah Winfrey]

What I learned from Michael Jackson. Here's a man who understands precision.

[Jack Myers]

It's about answering the questions that are hard, not about answering a bunch of teed up questions that are fake.

[Tim Spengler]

What we're looking for are real stories and practical advice that you can use with your teams right away.

[Jack Myers]

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[Will.i.am]

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[Oprah Winfrey]

to what we were saying earlier. Do you think there will be a time where we actually. Because you know, it's Debated over and over again whether technology connects us or disconnects us. And I love your analogy. We're just now talking to electricity. I think it's both. It connects us and it disconnects us. But how can we use it? Will we be able to move to a time when we'll be able to use it to maximize connection and minimize disconnection? Do you see that happening?

[Will.i.am]

Yeah. So, for example, here's what the phone does really good right now. Yeah. If I'm lost somewhere and I say, hey, I need to get to X and X coordinates, it could get me there. It mapped the whole planet.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

Really well. But it hasn't mapped me and people yet. So if I said, hey, I want to weigh 170 by April 19, 2018, it should be able to give me directions on how to do that. She helped me. Right. So I'm taking all these steps, but really, I don't really know what to do with those steps. Are the steps really for me or is it for the company to know my stuff now? You gotta start asking questions like, yo, what's really going on here with all these step stuff?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Are you watching me step? Are you all calculating my steps?

[Will.i.am]

Is it for me, though? Because how is it really for me? Yeah, y' all don't even know what I ate.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

To even burn off that stuff. So that's. That's for weight. But what about.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Maybe they do know what you ate.

[Will.i.am]

Right. So. But what if I wanted to have, like, life aspirations, you know, things that I want to accomplish, things that I want to do in life with all the knowledge that's out there in the world, can a system help me achieve my goals? So I don't have. You don't have that much time to search the Internet for all the things to really help you. There's not enough time. It's so noisy. It's the reason why I believe fake news is fake news. There's just so much stuff out there on purpose to flood you from what's right and what's wrong. You don't have enough time to thumb through it all. I don't know anybody that got time to live life, spend time with their family and friends, work, and thumb through life. It just so happens that people thumb through life more than they are interacting with people now. What if you had something that helped you save time where you don't have to thumb through life to where you don't search the Internet? The Internet comes to you and not notifications where it's like, bling, bling, bling, bling, bling, bling, bling. Because if I had to talk to something, it has to be smart enough to give me what I need. And that is the optimism I have with this. Not super intelligence, just personal intelligence for me. You can't do advertising and, like, pop up windows in the form of a conversation. That system has to be precise to give me what I need when I need it in the form of a conversation. And as soon as somebody start. If I'm talking to you and then I start talking about. For 99 cents Nike shoes on Figueroa Boulevard, you'd be like, yo, what the F are you talking about? Right. You can't just blurt off into freaking advertising mode out of nowhere. You wouldn't want me as a friend. And the same thing I believe is for this personal thing, it's going to help us save time. It's going to help us connect with the people that we care about because we don't have to thumb through life. We're thummies.

[Oprah Winfrey]

We're thumbing through life.

[Will.i.am]

Yeah. Like, not dummies, thumbies going through life for. And I. Yeah, I think there needs to. We need to have a verb for that. Like, you're thumbing too much. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to thumb you. Yeah, like flubbing, thumbing, tilting two people.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Well, we need language for that. And we also need language for what has happened to us, as we were saying earlier, what has happened to this sense of rudeness, this sense of we don't have a language for how people should be behaving.

[Will.i.am]

Yeah, yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Now, I've heard you say you want kids just to dream, to be like Steve Jobs and not only like Stevie Wonder. That's your main mission in life now. Correct.

[Will.i.am]

Yeah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

How do you do that when this generation more than ever just wants to be famous?

[Will.i.am]

Oh, it's terribly hard. But I think there's this get it about to get it about to live that life. Gotta make it rain. Whatever the hustle mentality is, I always say. But Steve Jobs did it so big, he don't hustle. Bill Gates did it so big, he isn't grinding.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Right.

[Will.i.am]

Why do you want to hustle and grind? There's a way to get it to where you're not grinding. You wouldn't buy a car that grinds.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

You wouldn't want to ride a horse called Hustle because eventually it will get tired.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

Like you would. You want a horse named Lightning, you want a car named Smooth.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

Right. So how do you apply the same things to life? Like, for a long time, they, they thought African Americans couldn't excel in tennis. Arthur Ashe and the Serena sisters dominated. They said, same thing with golf. Tiger woods dominated. The same things can be applied in the world of tech science, solving problems. So let's start, start dreaming that dream. Let's start saying there's, there's five foot two people that want to do it like Michael Jordan. There's no way you5 two, bro. And even if you, and you can get it that way, but not. There's more people that could get it like Steve Jobs than they are like Michael Jordan turns out, because everyone would turn pro by applying themselves. Department of Defense needs it. Department of Energy needs it. They need it. And there's a shortage of engineers.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And, and I know that you believe that poor, underprivileged, disenfranchised children are actually a business. What is the business of poverty, do you believe?

[Will.i.am]

Okay, so let's say, take me back. I'm 11 years old. I'm into projects. Just like you have scouts that go out and look for football players and basketball players to go to college. There are scouts that go into inner cities that check gpa, seeing how many people are in and out of juvenile hall, and they decide where they're going to build the next prison. And it just so happened in America for a long time, prisons were privatized. Yep.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Everybody should watch 13th, by the way.

[Will.i.am]

Yeah. Your delinquent behavior was a business for folks, say, for example. And it all starts with how much money they invest in a kid at an early age to go to school. If you go to Brentwood or the equivalent of Brentwood across America, a kid's getting eight to $10,000 a year for their education. If you go to Boyle Heights or Watts, the kid's getting three to five thousand dollars a year for their education. Wherever there's three to five thousand dollars a year for their education, those kids are subject to bad food, no financial literacy. They're in and out of juvenile hall and prison, and that's a business. They're obese and diabetic, and they're going to end up on some medicine. And the food that they're eating is going to scale their bad health to levels at which they probably won't live a long life. But it's throughout their life they were generating so much money for pharmaceutical companies, correctional facilities. And it's a business. So you want to combat business with business. So let's educate our kids. Either change how school Districts invest in a child or do what I do. In my neighborhood, there's so many celebrities that come from inner cities, they can adopt their school. So I adopted my school adjacent to the neighborhood I grew up in, and it cost about a million and a half bucks. And for a college training program, like college track, it works, right? So all the folks that are watching this, hearing it, it works. All the folks that are NBA, they have disposable income or rappers or singers, actors, actresses, go to the hood that you come from and adopt. It cost 1.2 a year. If you can do it that way. I mean, there's people rapping about spending money, wasting it.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

Like, imagine if our community was rapping about, like, changing their neighborhood. Right? That'd be awesome. Not getting that y' all can't wait to get about the hood. How about, like, I can't wait to change the hood? Imagine that. Imagine that was the path forward. Like, yo, I can't. Yo, how. How much you change your name, man? I changed my neighborhood. Like, X amount. Boom, boom, boom. I mean, it will be amazing, right? We always complain about the things like underserved communities or underdeveloped communities, but we never ask, who are the servers and the developers. I wonder who these developers and servers are that are making it possible for these living conditions. Turns out we can be the servers and developers ourselves.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So this makes you an optimist, right? You're an optimist about the future.

[Will.i.am]

Yeah, I'm the kind of optimist that if someone says, you know what they say? When the door closes, another one opens. Yeah, I don't say that.

[Oprah Winfrey]

You don't say that?

[Will.i.am]

Uh, I say, when a door closes, I'm gonna go build another door. Cause then that way it will always be open. Cause I own that door, and I can close it when I want. You could be an optimist that's still waiting for other opportunities, or you could be an optimist that makes opportunities. And that's how optimistic I am, is how do I go out and make opportunities and not wait for them?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Love it. All right, tell me what this is.

[Will.i.am]

Oh. Masters of the Sun.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. Masters of Black Eyed Peas. Present. Masters of the Sun. I hear this is a book that is like augmented reality. I'm really excited about this. I'm excited about this because it means future books is gonna change, right?

[Will.i.am]

Yep. All right, so Master of the sun is a graphic novel that I wrote five years ago with Nir and Damien Scott and then Jack and what it is, you classic traditional graphic Novel. Marvel was our partner.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

But we created this technology that allows you to put the phone over the book, and the book comes alive, like so.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Oh,

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[Will.i.am]

us who his supplier is.

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We find him, then we can find out.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Wow.

[Will.i.am]

Cause I can't think of any other way.

[Oprah Winfrey]

So you have the app that you put over the book, and then the book comes alive.

[Will.i.am]

Yeah. So I scored it with Hans Zimmer. So I went to Hans Zimmer's studio in Santa Monica. I'm like, look, I got this team that I've had for the past eight years that didn't. My financial folks were like, will, you need to get rid of this team. I was like, no, no. We'll figure something out. You don't understand. They're talented. And so everyone was talking about this new technology that augments physical spaces.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Books.

[Will.i.am]

And just like the space between me and you, you could layer it and put new information. I could see with augmented reality. I could see, like Oprah's digital halo.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Right.

[Will.i.am]

The things that are on your mind, things that you traveled. And right now it's on a phone. But tomorrow will be glasses or contacts.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. So we're just. We're really, like, what, five, six years from being able to see what other people are thinking. Right.

[Will.i.am]

Not see what they're thinking, but seeing what people's. Their collection of thoughts. So right now we have that. If I wanted to follow your feed, really, that's a collection of thoughts, what you thought about that picture, your comment about that, your conversations. If you really look at social platform, you really get to see what a person is about, what's important to them

[Oprah Winfrey]

or what they think is important or what they want you to think is important.

[Will.i.am]

But I need this device, this phone right now. So this book shows you that what you thought a book was in the past will change tomorrow. Where I could go deeper into what that sentence was about or hidden gems behind that phrase or picture, depending on the author. You could tell deeper stories with augmented reality in books. Right. When you thought books were obsolete, here comes something to bring them back up again. And the same way this book has been transformed, me sitting talking to Oprah, we'd be transformed. I'd have augmented lenses, whether they're glasses or contacts, which I think could be distracting. It could be distracting because every once in a while, you. Well, people do that anyway when they talk.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Well, so it all excites you, right? It just excites you. Do you sleep well?

[Will.i.am]

I've learned now that I've changed My regimen and plant based. Yeah, I sleep really well.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Okay. I was gonna say.

[Will.i.am]

So I go to sleep.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Are you constantly thinking about things? What the future is? What's it gonna look like?

[Will.i.am]

Yeah. So I go to sleep around 12 now, wake up at 7, 8, work out, eat right and have deeper sleeps. But I still, I'm always thinking about what tomorrow might be.

[Oprah Winfrey]

And what's your spiritual base? What keeps you personally grounded, your spirituality,

[Will.i.am]

the essence of you, the conversations, the prayers that I have with my future self and my past self.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Really.

[Will.i.am]

So when I pray and meditate, I meditate and pray to my 18 year old self right now who's lost because he doesn't know how to get here. So I send him GPS coordinates. Here's how you get here. Stay away from that, stay away from that. And I meditate and pray to that person. And just like the six year old, why?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Because you're already here in your 40s, so why do you need to do that?

[Will.i.am]

Because that's what got me here. Okay, So I don't see time. Like it's one o', clock, I'm late to a meeting. I think of time as this constant loop. If you choose to connect to your past self and future self.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Okay, right.

[Will.i.am]

So yeah, I'm here at 42. Yeah, but like I have a memory

[Oprah Winfrey]

of your 18 year old.

[Will.i.am]

Of my 18 year old self. I know he's lost and he got me here because I send him here. Just like my 60 year old self is sending me to that. Yeah, like why am I doing AI my 60 year old self is telling me to do this because it's going to be built anyway. Let's make sure it's built by folks that come from areas that either are going to have tougher lives because of which how do we make it easier for those folks? By making sure the algorithm is looking after them. If you're in a car, self driving car, AI and in the car is like a 20 billionaire and right next to him is 100 millionaire and walking across the street is Jamal. And they're all going to lax and to pass lax, get to lax, you have to pass Inglewood the hood and there's a car accident happening. And the AI knows that Jamal in an instant is only worth negative $2,000. Whose life is being saved and protected. That algorithm is being programmed now.

[Oprah Winfrey]

That algorithm is being programmed now.

[Will.i.am]

That algorithm has to be being programmed now because everyone's talking about self driving cars. So from that perspective there's sensors on the car that could see the face that know how that. Where that face is connected to financially, if there have been in any crime or not to be able to protect not only the lives of the car and the value and the right. Who's more important, the vehicle and the system or the person?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah, this is scary.

[Will.i.am]

You gotta think about that stuff right now.

[Oprah Winfrey]

This is very scary. This is very scary.

[Will.i.am]

That's the reason why I'm like, if

[Oprah Winfrey]

a car knows who I am as I'm crossing the street, I think that's pretty darn scary.

[Will.i.am]

What's scary is all the Uber drivers will be out of jobs in five years. You think, you know, you cannot say autonomous vehicles and then at the same time say Uber drivers.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah. Does not compute.

[Will.i.am]

Yeah. So there's a lot of things. But with AI, new jobs will come. It always is as so where kids that have nothing end up creating things that never existed. Jazz, hip hop.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Hip hop. Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

It all came from folks that were forgotten.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

So what are those folks going to dream up and imagine in new careers and new industries that are going to come for their dabbling in AI? And the sooner you put them in the conversation, the better it is for folks that are synonymous to their life conditions. So I just talked about, like inner cities. What about slums? One of those slums is Bangalore, India. Bangalore, India, 2005, wasn't the Bangalore India you know, today? The Bangalore India, you know, today is like the tech hub of India.

[Oprah Winfrey]

Yeah.

[Will.i.am]

Right. So you see how tech can transform the living conditions and it will continue to change. Yeah. So AI is. People are grazing over it. Spellcheck is AI the dog ears when you're on Instagram or Snapchat. Snapchat is some version of AI or ar.

[Oprah Winfrey]

It's here.

[Will.i.am]

Yes. Stephen Hawkins is a genius and rest in peace, great addition to society as a whole. Elon Musk. Amazing. So some people could be like, really? Will I. Am we supposed to take your optimism over the geniuses? You should always take optimism over worry and fear. Their concern is not that AI is bad, it could be bad. But then you have to ask, why will it go wrong? It will go wrong if education is not matched with investment for AI. So if we have a dumb society, that's when it goes wrong. What are we doing to counter that and make sure that, you know, we play a role in making sure to our best abilities that people are educated. How do you change frequency in popular culture to where education is sought after and not just meaningless materialism?

[Oprah Winfrey]

Thank you. Cool conversation. Thank you.

[Will.i.am]

Thanks, Oprah.

[Oprah Winfrey]

I'm Oprah Winfrey and you've been listening to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. You can follow Super Soul on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you haven't yet, go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. Rate and review this podcast. Join me next week for another Super Soul conversation. Thank you for listening.

[Tim Spengler]

Leadership used to mean having all the answers, but today's best leaders embody a more human approach.

[Jack Myers]

I'm Jack Myers.

[Tim Spengler]

And I'm Tim Spengler.

[Jack Myers]

Tim and I have spent our careers inside media, marketing and culture and we

[Tim Spengler]

partnered with the ACAST Creator Network to start Lead Human to answer one simple question. What does it really look like to lead in this AI dominated world?

[Will.i.am]

The biggest tip for being a creator? It's a job.

[Oprah Winfrey]

What I learned from Michael Jackson Here's a man who understands precision.

[Jack Myers]

It's about answering the questions that are hard, not about answering a bunch of teed up questions that are fake.

[Tim Spengler]

What we're looking for are real stories and practical advice that you can use with your teams right away.

[Jack Myers]

Subscribe to Lead Human with Jack Myers and Tim Spengler. Wherever you get your podcasts, you're locked

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