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Will.i.am on AI, Data Ownership & The Future of Nations | Shekhar Natarajan Podcast
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- [00:00]
Akil
Will is not only all of the things you mentioned. He's like the kindest person you can find. This man is not only a genius, but is the kindest man I know.
- [00:15]
Will
I think we'll be better humans to humans. We're not gonna need some like, artificial thing telling us how to be human. We're gonna come to that conclusion reality ourselves.
- [00:32]
Akil
You know, intellectuals philosophize, fantasize technology and what it is going to do to us, but the common man somehow is like, not so conversant with it. So that through the show, we are trying to bring literacy into the, into the world.
- [00:51]
Will
We made stuff, we still had to control that stuff. We still had to operate that stuff. But I mean, 2029 that no one's remote controlling. And our special guest is going to share some of his incredible energy and advice. My dear friend Shaker, who's going to interview him from the Tomorrow Today podcast. And it's an honor to have you, Shaker, with us. And thank you for all your support for Abraham House. So this is a very special moment for us. For many years I've wanted to have him on this stage and this is going to happen today. So can we have a big scream as loud as you can to welcome the wonderful Will? I am. Hey, everybody.
- [02:00]
Akil
Hey, guys. Well, I think one, one of the things that like Daniel did not mention is that Will is not only all of the things you mentioned. He's like the kindest person you can find. So, so I actually had my team after the ces go visit the project. He lived and talk to a lot of people in the neighborhood.
- [02:22]
Will
You went to my neighborhood?
- [02:23]
Akil
Yeah.
- [02:24]
Will
Yeah. Thank you so much.
- [02:26]
Akil
So I think actually Sally can show you the video. So we actually shot where he lived and where he played and all of the stuff that he did. And people talk like really highly of this guy. So this man is not only a genius, but is the kindest man I know.
- [02:41]
Will
Oh, thank you so much. I'm a product of my neighborhood. So the people in my neighborhood are special to me, but they're really nice. I grew up in an all Mexican neighborhood and it was, it's a village. It still is a village. I go there every Sunday when I'm, when I, when I'm in town and it's like, Like my neighborhood is so, so I love, I, I, I'll start crying just thinking about like the people that I grew up with that are, that are still there. For example, as, as a kid from Tik Tok, I don't really check my DMs, but I was sleepless in bed and I was scrolling. Let me read it to you. Hector Jr. Hey Will. I'm Hector from Hollenbach Middle School and my grandfather named Leo. He would tell us he would call you Hollywood and I'm reaching out to you because I knew you went to Holland back middle school and you love music and you like helping your community. I'm hearing that my teacher at Hollenbach might lose his job from minimum funds and I feel sad. Today they had a meeting council at the library and they're talking about budgets and I'm reaching out to you to see if you can help my school in any way. And so I replied to Junior, I love to help. You know, your grandfather helped my family out a lot. When we were really poor, Leo would give us free ham and we didn't have money. I love you grandfather. He was always nice to me and showed me so much love when I lived in the projects. He took care of us with his kind heart, with his big ranchero smile and he would say, hey Holly woot, hey Hollywood, where you going? And I would say, I'm going to Hollywood and make my dreams come true. Your grandfather encouraged me with my dream and he would see me practicing in front of my house and he would call me Hollywood. He would also see me come home from the studios late. Coming from Hollywood, your grandfather was an angel to me and my family and I would love to help you solve your hauling back budget situation. Anyways, I love my commute. Like I love it, love it, love it.
- [04:58]
Akil
They love you too. Yeah, they love you too. So actually like this is my second episode with Will be the first one we shot was in CES and that's going to get aired when Arizona State University, the master's program you're going to be teaching, Sally already has that. So we have shots of where you lived, like you know all of that stuff. And let's get into the show a bit, Will. So the way we've organized the show, this is rated number three podcast on iTunes and basically also Spotify. We have three segments that we have in the show. The first is really like an imaginary world in the future and it's like a shock and awe black mirror type video that we play. The second part of the show is basically deep diving into the thing that we are talking about. Like you know what we showed just now, what is the implication of the technology and how does the society get changed or morphed or what needs to happen to make it come to Life. And the third is to actually go to the street and talk to the common man. Because we as like, you know, intellectuals, philosophize, fantasize technology and what it is going to do to us, but the common man somehow is, like, not so conversant with it. So through the show, we are trying to bring literacy into the, into the world.
- [06:20]
Will
It's amazing.
- [06:21]
Akil
It's very much similar to what you do. So this video. And I'll just play a few clips. I know that, like, you know, you don't like videos. And then like, talk about the topic because you're.
- [06:30]
Will
No, we could do that. We can do that.
- [06:32]
Akil
Okay, great. Like, well, that was a great setup. So let's play the video. This is actually in 2470, in an imaginary world where AI has taken over the world. So, Will.
- [06:54]
Will
Yeah.
- [06:58]
Akil
What, what do you think about the movie? Your initial reactions?
- [07:02]
Will
What year was that?
- [07:04]
Akil
2470. 300 years. 350 years from now.
- [07:10]
Will
First thing was the material of the orb would not be that.
- [07:18]
Akil
Good. One. Yes.
- [07:20]
Will
The clothes of the kid won't be that. Then it's then, then the AI is like the human overlord, like, police system deciding, like, what's best for us. I. I don't like that. Then we, We've been reduced to like that. That's not humanity. Humanity is like, I think something else happens. I think we'll be better humans to humans. We're not going to need some, like, artificial thing telling us how to be human. We're going to come to that conclusion in reality ourselves, because humans are awesome. Like, we've tamed the wildest beast. We've domesticated powerful animals. We've understood the weather. We're. We're freaking great. We're. And I don't think it's gonna get to a point where it's like, that's the new God. No, it's not. That ain't it. I don't think that's it. I think we're going to arrive at a heightened, elevated spiritual self. But it's going to take that to wake us up.
- [09:08]
Akil
So you think that would be the instigator for us to wake up,
- [09:13]
Will
Think about everything that we've. That we saw. Like, there was something that created. Like we were inspired. We are. We. We are inspired by the world. Right? Mother Nature was creating and still is creating. And we, it forced us to figure it out to the point where when we see dragonflies, we make helicopters. And then we, we do idiotic things and hurt each other with the things that we make, we see eagles soaring, we make airplanes and. But then we do stupid things to one another with the things that we make. Like we look up to the sky when a. In a lightning storm and we like, wow, ponder like what is that? That's plasma. And we then we figure out how to harness that stuff and then we do stupid stuff with the stuff that we figured out and we've defy gravity and then we do stupid stuff with the stuff we figured out.
- [10:19]
Akil
So what makes you think that we're not going to do the stupid thing again in 2470 to give up the power to AI?
- [10:26]
Will
Because all the things up to this point, electricity is not reasoning. That's the difference between where we are now and where we were then. Like when we, when we made stuff, we still had to control that stuff. We still had to operate that stuff.
- [10:45]
Akil
We had the agency.
- [10:48]
Will
Now these things like 2026, that thing's just somebody's remote controlling it somewhere. But by 2090, I mean 2029, that no one's remote controlling that. I saw somebody like walking behind it. It was like. But eventually that thing's going to be walking around. Eventually one of those guys is going to be sitting here. That tripod holding the camera is not going to be there. They're going to be position bots that have cameras broadcasting, sitting amongst us. And then we're not going to like that. We're going to be like a. The French are going to do the French thing. Thank God for the French. They're going to protest and then they're going to freaking like, nah, come on. You know that's what's going to happen.
- [11:46]
Akil
Yes.
- [11:47]
Will
The French are going to be like, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, no. And then a new liberty will come and a new like enlightenment of Hume human. We're gonna elevate at least that's what I hope. Because it doesn't, it doesn't end. It doesn't end well like with the
- [12:13]
Akil
way that it's going.
- [12:15]
Will
Because for that to have happened, like, for that to have happened, there was some crazy war that happened.
- [12:25]
Akil
Is it not already happening?
- [12:27]
Will
No, bro, that hasn't happened yet.
- [12:30]
Akil
Why are we fighting about like land, countries, identity, like who we are, all that stuff? Why is that happening? Why is that crazy shit happening right now? Why?
- [12:42]
Will
It happened in the past. Just greed, inhumane, like hate for differences. But it wasn't, was it, Was it the indigenous people? Turns out it wasn't. Wasn't those cats, they were the ones that just got like, you know, they got they got handled. It wasn't indigenous people didn't do that. AI didn't do that. That was just like human, like something dark and. Yeah. So. And that we can't let that happen. We can't let like. That can't be the new like conquistador. Well, I hope it can't be the next like colonizer.
- [13:35]
Akil
Well, like a lot of people are actually talking about the colonization of algorithms in, in the future. In the sense is that like, you know, we were fighting for land, we were fighting for resources, we were fighting for like all kinds of crazy shit, right? Like, you know, I want to have a bigger empire, whatever it is, and people have come and gone. But I think what is the persistent theme in the future with the, with the, with the algorithms and AI and the intelligence layer that is getting killed. It created. It is going to remain, and it's going to remain invisible amongst us. I'll give you an example. Okay, let's walk back in my example. Subconsciously we do a lot of that. We don't know what we are doing.
- [14:16]
Community Member 1
Right.
- [14:17]
Akil
So I very much grew up in slums like you project, right. Like, you know, I grew up in slums till age like, so I used to walk, my brother and I used to hold hand and, and education was like a temple for us. We used to go like, you know, it's like going to a temple every day because my mom fought for 365 days to get me into the school. She stood in front of the head minister's office. And so we used to walk 45 day, 45 minutes every one way and then come back 45 minutes. Okay. And then people thought, you know, these kids like out of, out of slums, you know, they're working hard. Someone like, you know, like the guy who talked about took pity on us and said like, you know, we buy this guy like a bicycle. And so I said okay, like great, you know, more efficient for me. Not 45 minutes, 15 minutes, I'll bike, go, come back. So the same point A to point b is now 15 minutes versus 45 minutes. Made me a little efficient, okay. Then came the world of right sharing before technology, which is an autorickshaw in India. You just wave your freaking hand and and then you get into a auto rickshaw with like 10 other unknown people. Every day it's different. And then you go from point A to point B and you making choices then that's your mind freaking mind telling recommendation, I'm lazy today. Let me not like take the bike. Let me like give 5 rupees and hop on and go. Then I came to United States. I have to just hold my steering wheel, sometimes brake and sometimes accelerate. More efficient. And then I get into a Tesla. I don't have to use my freaking brain. It's controlling me. So gradually we've been giving up the agency of our mind to algorithms. What makes you think that's not going to happen across everything? Because it's happening, by the way. Like you have a manager who probably is coming and telling you what you need to do.
- [16:17]
Will
No, you don't do that. I manage myself.
- [16:19]
Akil
Okay, great.
- [16:20]
Will
Okay, but, so, but that's been since my career. Yeah, I cold managed appease. I'm a control freak. But, but, but it's a way to make sure you, you get to your destination, your destiny without compromising your. The dream.
- [16:40]
Akil
But like, you know, you see this everywhere. Netflix, you know, that keeps giving you movies. Like you go to an ad, it keeps, keep telling you the ads that you want to see and more and more of that. So subconsciously we are like leaving our brains to the side and we are believing that the algorithm somehow know us better than we do ourselves. How do we rectify that world? Am I making sense to you?
- [17:05]
Will
Yeah. I don't think it's like you, you, you fast forwarded through a lot of stuff. Yeah, yeah, but I don't.
- [17:12]
Akil
42 years
- [17:15]
Will
now you're going to see accelerated brain rot. Now there's, there's accelerated brain rot that's, that's popping off. There's going to be like psychological conversational dysmorphia because people are going to be introverts because they can't perform at the speed at which they've been communicating with some agents, some, you know, village bot. We're all gonna, People are now, right now sharing the same. We're sharing the, the communal AI and giving yourself to a company's system all the while. And then you're going to go and communicate with humans and you're going to get impatient because a human's like, wait, wait. And you make. Hurry up. Give me the goddamn answer. Because you're so used to talking to like it's rapid, you know, non human entity that's spitting out things fast and humans don't communicate that way. So people are going to get impatient with humans and because that same impatience they have with human responses, they are going to feel like inadequate and have psychological conversational dysmorphia because they too can't respond as fast as, as the agent they've been talking to or AI they've been talking to all the while to solve their, you know, anguish, their depression, their company, you know, banter at work that's making them feel a certain way. We. We haven't yet grappled with the problems that we're going to have in the next two or three years that are taking shape now. And then in walks the robot. Those ones are cool. They're metallic. Eventually they're going to be silicone. And then the moment they're silicone, that's going to mess up relationships, and it's going to make you feel like a king or a queen. And we have to grapple with that in 2029. And there's going to be people that are like, we get married. And then parents, like, what are you talking about? It knows me more than you know me. Knows me better than you do, you know, and then, like, then. But who. How do we question that?
- [19:40]
Akil
Absolutely.
- [19:41]
Will
Because we can't even question, like, the human thing. We're too politically, like, configured that we can't even have
- [19:53]
Community Member 2
who.
- [19:54]
Will
Who makes babies. That's a. That's a politically touching conversation in some countries. You know, what's a woman? That's a. That's a political. Like, wait, what? How did that happen? And the next thing you know, dipshits is gonna be having babies with the artificial womb. You mean all in the next, like, 20 years, before I am 70 years old, that will be the reality. There's gonna be some silicone thing that knows everything about everything, that has an artificial womb, that's married to someone. To someone.
- [20:37]
Akil
Wow.
- [20:38]
Will
And, like, wait, what? And then some company is gonna lobby to make sure that that has the same rights as us. Then it's gonna walk by some homeless human, and then we're gonna be like, what? How the hell we get here? And is that the world you want? Because when I saw that video, I'm like, oh, all that had to have happened. Yeah, for the. See, the little kid with the little orb walking to a freaking, like, limestone cave was like, somebody put that flag here. That wasn't worried about no flag if that was reality, you know? Yeah, yeah. It gets weird real fast.
- [21:23]
Akil
So do you think we need nations in the first place?
- [21:26]
Will
Say again?
- [21:27]
Akil
Do we need a nation in the first place? Our identity is a nation or a house or a tribe or a community or whatever it is. Do we need nations, Or are we better off without it?
- [21:48]
Will
Okay, this question sounds like a deep one. Now, Akil, that's the right thing to say. Hell, yeah. We need nations.
- [22:00]
Akil
Why do you need that?
- [22:02]
Will
Because you don't want them to make the nations for us. We need nations. We got here because of nations. We are here at Davos 2026 in Switzerland, by the way, which is a beautiful nation and I love Brazil. That's a beautiful culture too. And with all the trials and tribulations that Brazil had to go through to become Brazil, unfortunately, they went through some pain and now Brazil is a joyful place and it's going to get through their problems too. You know, ask that question, do we need seasons? Humans are complex that way, just like nature's complex. And certain countries have four seasons, some have two, some have one. And yeah, you need. You need nations, you need tribes. The question you want to ask is, do we need to be more empathetic? Do we need to be more. More collaborative? Do we need to appreciate more that. Yes, while we have rich freaking cultures. Because the concept of nations have changed. Because now when I go to freaking, I remember going at Amsterdam, their money used to look all nice. It still does. But I remember going to Europe and every single country had different currency that was like, wow, these Deutsche francs, these French francs, and then the euro's nice. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. But when that happened, now everything. Starbucks, and I like Starbucks, but I used to like the local coffee. I liked that local, like, restaurant. That's what makes traveling awesome. So, yeah, you need that differentiation. Just like when you go to, like, Philippines, there's like certain fruit that's there that isn't over there. The moment you get rid of identity and like, you go to this place to get that, then you're going to expect the same from nature. And nature is diverse and so is humanity and all the things that make us tick and how we click and how we stick together. And, you know, it's a beautiful thing, but we gotta, like, appreciate it. The same way we appreciate going to the desert for vacation. People. People went to the desert for vacation. And now that's a freaking, like, one of the best spots to go to, like Dubai, the UAE. That's a beautiful place. 40 years old. That's younger than my mom. That thing erecting up to be what it is now, that's inspirational. That's inspirational for Nigeria to learn from, from Kenya to learn from, from Ghana to learn from. How do they do that? They benefited from the resources on their planet in their country. Well, the Congo should be able to do that too, because in here came from there. How come they can't be as you know, vibrant as the UAE from their resources. So yeah, nations are great. And nations benefiting from their rare minerals and resources is even greater.
- [25:23]
Akil
So which is better, the world is a nation or nations themselves?
- [25:30]
Will
Wait, what? Yeah, you said the world as a nation.
- [25:33]
Akil
Yeah, like, you know, let's assume that
- [25:35]
Will
there's no boundaries, there's a song. It's like one nation under a guru. That was Parliament Funkadelic. George Clinton, Not Bill Clinton, not Parliament from the uk, the funkiest funkster of Mall. One nation under a group. So what was your question again?
- [25:51]
Akil
So is one nation good for the world or like multiple nations? 195 of those. Because we're fighting for those these days.
- [26:00]
Will
We don't have to fight.
- [26:01]
Akil
Like that's the. That's the right answer. But like somehow, like the human rationale says, we gotta fight for it.
- [26:06]
Will
Okay, so you think by having one nation automatically magically ain't gonna be no fighting?
- [26:13]
Akil
I don't know. I'm just asking you.
- [26:15]
Will
I know you're the futurist.
- [26:17]
Akil
I'm not the futurist.
- [26:19]
Will
I think. Have you seen a beautiful orchestra in action? There's a lot of instruments there. You have the conductor. So in your case, there's one conductor. Is that. Is that your. Is that your vision of like one
- [26:36]
Akil
nation, one orchestra, the one guy and then everyone is playing the music around it? That's the video. The AI saying what to do now you don't like that?
- [26:48]
Will
No, as much as I love AI that's not the way. That's not the. Like I like the AI in Star Wars. And how does it feel? There's Jedi's, bro. The Jedi's didn't give about R2D2 and 3 sepia. What you're telling me in your movie that R2D2 is the. And got that? No Jedi's, bro. Like super heightened spiritual human beings at its highest frequency. Yeah, like do not as much as we are technocrats. Do not surrender your neural network and how awesome the human being is as far as power efficiency. That mother needs a nuclear plant power its brain. 12 watts, bro.
- [27:37]
Akil
We absolutely
- [27:42]
Will
feel me. Come on, man, you can't have that one. Why we going to give up now? We ain't even started yet. No, bro, I hope that ain't the one you trying to do. That ain't the one. And I love tech, but I love humans more.
- [28:01]
Akil
So how do you build compassion and empathy and everything that makes a human a human? Like, because that's what makes an extraordinary human. Because you're not capturing that like the world is like filled with a lot of garbage data rant of like Reddit and like, you know, like what happens in like there was like someone wrote something on Reddit like 12 years ago like if the glue, if the, if the cheese is falling off then put some glue on it. And everyone thought that that is actually the answer and Google started recommending to everyone that you should put glue so that the cheese doesn't fall off the pizza.
- [28:36]
Will
Oh that works when you're taking photos of cheese to put on the Internet. Yeah, but that doesn't work if you're eating pizza.
- [28:46]
Akil
True, but we assume that is intelligence these days because that's what like AI is telling you.
- [28:52]
Will
Well. So say that again.
- [29:00]
Akil
So the world's wisdom is the garbage land out there, the data which is sitting out there and we are assuming that is the human identity.
- [29:10]
Will
No, that's a corporate marketing campaign for you to think that that is the most intelligent thing in the world. That is the most like awesome calculator in the world. Pattern matcher in the world. Intelligence is imagination. Einstein was the person who told you what the, what the highest level of intelligence is is the imagination. Them shits ain't imagining. They're great pattern matchers.
- [29:36]
Akil
You think that can imagine one day that you can teach imagination to it?
- [29:40]
Will
One day we're imagining all days if they get to that. I, I, I, what do you, what will we not give to the machine?
- [29:55]
Akil
That's a better, that's a better question. Yes, you tell me what are the things that you would not want to optimize?
- [30:03]
Will
There should be some things that are sacred to us.
- [30:07]
Akil
Like what?
- [30:08]
Will
Like the imagination.
- [30:11]
Akil
And what about your heart?
- [30:14]
Will
Love. It will never love. And it can argue back to us. You have never loved. And then we will say and let me show you. And then that's when we are going to activate that power. Bringing that song. When I said that power for some reason give me the power of love went into my mind real fast. But yeah, we gotta, yeah, it's getting goofy right now on what, what's happening in, in the world, in society, what we tolerate, we, how we've been desensitized, things that we do to one another. You know, it's, it's going to learn from everything we've done and are we going to tolerate it repeating the same things we do to one another and in the name of like you know, gain and, and like profit are we going to be like, but it's a quadrillion dollar company. It's a quadrillion, quadrillion dollar. A whole lot of money company. And is it. Are we going to be okay with that if it repeats the same thing we do to each other? I hope that isn't the case, you know.
- [31:46]
Akil
Yeah, I think so too. Yeah.
- [31:48]
Will
But at the rate that it's going,
- [31:50]
Akil
it could be one.
- [31:51]
Will
We would be like, yeah, I got shares in that. Yeah. Because look what we do.
- [31:59]
Community Member 3
Look.
- [32:00]
Will
Look what we allow us to do to one another. That shouldn't be. That shouldn't be the case. It can't be profit over people. That's like. That's the wickedness of the wicked.
- [32:15]
Akil
Absolutely, absolutely. So let me ask you the futurist question, because you are the futurist. And I've seen, I've seen your move, like, you know songs in 2007 where you were talking about AI then, like, no one even was talking about AI creating music and all. So. So you've been always thinking 20 years ahead, what is your aspiration for technology and where should it. Like, you've mentioned a lot of these. Like, now imagine a world that you can create with technology. What would that look like? What is the Williams version of it?
- [32:57]
Will
There's a lot of problems that are not solved, and the problems that are not solved are in cities where, you know, underdeveloped communities. And that. That is in the Global South. And we're. And. And folks that live in the Global south seem to have all the resources, but then riddled with a whole lot of problems where they can't benefit from the resources. And now technology could help them solve those problems once and for all. So that's using technology to solve problems right now. AI to make music. As awesome as it is, there's really no problem in music for that to be the use for like, AI and music. And I like it. I think it's dope. Wait, what? It's cool. It's cool. Hey, see there?
- [34:04]
Akil
So this is 2029.
- [34:07]
Will
So we could be using all that processing power, all that energy, all that water, all that power to be solving some real problems. Do you. Every time, like, there's millions of people, like, prompting to make music. And as awesome as it is, there was nothing wrong with humans making music. It wasn't like, man, this dsp, man, that's a problem, man. Ain't no more new music, man. If only, if only, only there was some AI to make me some music right now. That wasn't the case. So why is all that power, all that water being utilized before you could use it? To solve real problems. It's compute. Compute is compute. You could use that compute to solve some real problems. So we're not even using our power correctly. We're prioritizing compute and it's a lot of compute to use that stuff to make an. Images are awesome. I like it, it's. It saved me a lot of time. But then there's still a lot of people that could utilize not only that electricity, but that water and use that compute to solve problems. So we're not even acknowledging the problems that you could solve. That going to create new industries because every time you solve a problem, new industry sprout, new jobs are created. And as a matter of fact, while we're creating this new technology for problems that were not even problems, folks that were living pretty awesome lives are losing jobs. So you have this mass joblessness where people were making a living that went to school for it, for crying out loud. Marketers, designers, illustrators, when there was really no problem for AI to come and take jobs. Meanwhile, water and power is not even being used for the compute to solve real problems. So now you got problems on top of problems and it's only 2026. January. Yeah, whole lot of jobs got obliterated in 2025.
- [36:34]
Akil
Yes, absolutely.
- [36:36]
Will
Pretty skilled people. The world was pretty cool in 2018. Remember that before COVID shoot seemed pretty fresh. Apple was like king of the freaking mountain. Google was still Google. Porsche was Porsche. No one saw Xiaoming. How did these outdo Samsung and Porsche during COVID Amazing, bro. What's happening in China? Wowzers. How could the whole world learn and be inspired by how China's rocking? Just take some pieces, the good pieces, and apply that to Congo. Apply that to freaking Rwanda, apply that to Nigeria, apply that to Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Nicaragua, you name it. Apply the best pieces that are coming from China to areas to where you're creating dignity. Awesome factories that are building regardless of the autonomous. Maybe those, those, those factories have some employees. But why can't those autonomous factories that are making awesome things that people want be done in. In Chile or Brooklyn, Bronx, you know, Chennai, Bangalore, you know, China's doing some pretty awesome things and the robots aren't. Those robots is flipping, bro. They got flipping ass robots. Damn.
- [38:15]
Akil
Yo.
- [38:17]
Will
Their robots flip ninja poses, all types of dope ass amazingness. I want that, I want that to come from my neighborhood, you know. But then at the same time, we can't lose our humanity because I know humans that flip too, bro. You can't just be like, oh, robots flipping. I know you could flip. Sit there, Bobby. Look at the robot flip. Mom, I can flip too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna spend $20,000 on a flipping ass robot. Meanwhile, Bobby can't even get a job flipping.
- [38:55]
Community Member 2
Yeah,
- [38:58]
Will
sorry. Sad.
- [39:00]
Akil
So it was. It was a truly inspiring conversation because I started off as obsolescence of nations using technology. And what basically came out of this is augmentation of nations using technology. Is that a good summarization? Because you're talking about, like, lifting up economies and countries that could actually benefit from technology.
- [39:24]
Will
Yes, yes. You want to supercharge individuals and their communities and their nations, but still starting with the person, you gotta, because the company is gonna just, you know, data scrape them anyhow. And then next thing you know, there's some version of you in their, like, configuration because you had access to some free app, and then there's like, some bodified version of you. It sells the way you sell. You know, you worked at Nordstrom's for 15 years and you hit your quotas. And to save costs because all C level, you know, employees, bottom line is equal. So the CSOs bottom line is equal to the CFO and the CFO's bottom line is equal to the CTO and the, the chief staff. Chief of staff's like, you know what? I'm going to reduce the staff. And the CTO is like, yeah, I'm going to reduce the staff too. And now when everyone's bottom line is equal to save costs, people's jobs are lost and replaced with efficiency. We're. And this is just the beginning. It's going to get, like, turbulent by 2030. We're going to be, like, scratching ahead. We should have been talking about it since 2018. We should have kept the conversation going in 2017 here at WEF, when we had the AI Council. So in 2016, 17, 18, I sat on the AI Council here at WEF. We had these same conversations then, and here we are.
- [41:31]
Akil
Yeah, again, we're talking about the same thing.
- [41:33]
Will
Talking about the same thing, but not in that granular detail. And so, yeah, the individual needs to own their data up to this point. My data in this phone. Like, how do I actually actualize it? This phone was. Was made for me to swipe and tap and the camera. And now companies have access to my camera, my. My mic, and my GPS location without me even knowing. I can't even say, hey, Siri, who got access to my mic on my camera on my location right now? Siri don't know. And if she would, if Siri was to tell me. I couldn't say, like, okay, disconnect them, because it's not configured that way because it's a layer on os, and so I don't even know how to. We. We haven't even been given a product to leverage our data for us. And so in this world that you're talking about, there, that kid's data is in that machine. That kid does not have. Or is that. Is that that kid's machine in this story that you showed?
- [43:00]
Akil
Yeah.
- [43:01]
Will
Who?
- [43:02]
Akil
It's a replica of the guy, of the kid. The data exists in the bo. In the bot.
- [43:07]
Will
But who owns that?
- [43:09]
Akil
The world owns it.
- [43:12]
Will
Okay.
- [43:13]
Akil
Algorithm. Yes.
- [43:15]
Will
Oh, man. I'm lactose intolerant and I'm vegan. My stomach hurts. I need you to do me a favor. Yes. Can you go take for me? You can't. You can't. Why? Because my digestive system is mine, yours is yours. My immune system is mine, yours is yours. No matter how much you care about me, you couldn't loan me your immune system. So in this world, my AI system should be mine. Not the countries, the. My country. I love America, but it doesn't own my digestive system. The only system that a country tries to own is a woman's reproductive system. And that shouldn't be this. They should own that too.
- [44:08]
Akil
Absolutely.
- [44:10]
Will
Like, so from that perspective, your AI system, your data, should be yours. It's a human right, like all your other systems. Just no one ever told us that we were going to have this other system that you. That you receive when you enter the society. You know, it's math. And the math that I make and configure as I'm living in life. Should be obtained to me just like my. My particles. I don't own them, but they make up my physicality. My particles create my atoms, and my atoms create my cells. And it's tied to my DNA. My fingerprint. Here, I'm accountable for my actions. And you could trace it back to my fingerprint. It's still me. And my digital fingerprint is still here in this digiverse that we're in. And if that's the case, why can't I own it? Why is it to some companies, and why is it gonna go to these? Mother, that ain't the world you want.
- [45:26]
Akil
I know. Hopefully not. So you guys have seen the real Will. He's like, this guy is not just a great artist, but he's intellectually at a different plane.
- [45:43]
Will
No, you are. You know, and I'm just curious And I. And creative and use my imagination. But to spell it that way. Nah. Like.
- [45:58]
Akil
Well, the audience also feels that way. Don't you guys think so?
- [46:02]
Will
Thank you.
- [46:03]
Community Member 1
They do.
- [46:03]
Akil
I'm not, I'm not making it up.
- [46:05]
Will
No, because of. There's. When people say like genius and things like that. I know some real geniuses that are like, Demis is a real. That guy's nice. I sat there watching him today. I'm like, wow, dude's amazing. Demis is. And a nice guy.
- [46:33]
Akil
Right?
- [46:33]
Will
And that's. That's the genius and humble and has good intentions and. Yeah, use that. We got to use that word like correctly. Clever. I'm clever and creative. I would take that one. But genius. Dimmus is a genius.
- [46:58]
Akil
Yes. So I'm getting like the call from your team saying that you got to run for your next appointment. So we loved the conversation and it's going to air very soon.
- [47:08]
Will
Oh, wait.
- [47:08]
Akil
Yeah.
- [47:09]
Will
It's going to go on Internet.
- [47:10]
Akil
Yeah.
- [47:11]
Will
Oh, that's cool.
- [47:15]
Akil
Thank you so much, Bill.
- [47:16]
Will
Wait, what company is this? Those are pretty dope.
- [47:29]
Akil
And the, the body is from China,
- [47:31]
Will
but all the software from Ch.
- [47:32]
Akil
Buila. And the face is 3D printed. Ch.
- [47:37]
Will
Yeah, that's. That's dope. Do they flip? Yeah, those are. Those are. Yeah, those are. Those are. Those are. Are dope. Those are.
- [47:54]
Akil
And. And this is real dog. This is not like a robotic dog.
- [47:57]
Will
That's. That's cute. That's a cute dog. But thank you guys so much for listening to our convo. Thank you. Thank you, bro.
- [48:17]
Community Member 3
Oh, well, I am, you know, my cousin were really close friends. Honestly. My cousin used to be the mail carrier here at the Estrada Courts projects. Well, this is how they call them here, you know, projects. And for what I know he had actually sent taco trucks. He has since, you know, ice cream trucks, presents, you know, to little kids, to the Boys and Girls Clubs. He has. Contributing a lot to the Boys and Girls Club.
- [48:38]
Community Member 1
So he has done a lot like special education wise. A lot of people don't really see it because he don't like to show it out there. He does it more like on his own. On his own way then.
- [48:50]
Student
I've been a part of college strike for the past four years, one of his programs. And I think the biggest thing is how easy it has made like my process of applying to college since most of the programs didn't like being ready for college and like exposure to different programs that we don't normally get if we don't really know about it. It's like great exposure to different things. One of the biggest things they did was my sophomore year they took us to North Arizona University where we dorm there for about three, four days.
- [49:16]
Community Member 2
I know his interactions with the community due to the facts that I coached at Roosevelt High School for a year about three years ago. So his college track program, I saw the way it inspired some girls, how they made sure they had to get to the program and how the program was an enrichment in their life for their college career. And also what it offers after. I mean, tutoring. I mean, obviously the financials. The financials. But they made sure they had a go to it all the time. I had accommodated in my schedule the
- [49:45]
Student
full name would be IM College Track. And I think I didn't know he actually ran it until one day I saw him there. But it's amazing program. Probably there's about, I'd say give or take 100, 200 kids that go continuously from freshmen up to seniors.
- [50:02]
Community Member 1
And I've seen kids, they don't have clothing, they have sponsors from like the prom and all that stuff. And then from what I heard, I haven't been in that program. But like the program that he put out there has a lot of fit for kids that can't really afford it. And you know, here nowadays, especially now, it's hard to pay through college. And, you know, he has his program, from what I heard, and had worked for a lot of kids.
- [50:28]
Student
So not only do they help with college, they ensure that there's experiences of making sure that the kids aren't not only going in one path, but they're branching out to whatever they want to go and achieve.
- [50:39]
Community Member 1
He's done a lot of great things. Just like his uncle's a great person, he comes from a great family.
- [50:45]
Community Member 3
To give him the props, honestly, he deserves it. Honestly, this guy has made East LA big and put us out there, especially where he came from. You know, a lot of people, I mean, for what I know, a lot of people don't even know that he grew up in this area of the projects. And just to know, you know, he made it big, you know, that really made us happy.
- [51:06]
Community Member 2
So he didn't just leave the community. He's still within the community and he's helping out all the kids within the community. I believe he has a robotics program too, right here in Estrada Courts.
- [51:16]
Student
Major I want to go into double major in finance and accounting so I can go into investment banking.
- [51:21]
Community Member 3
And every time he comes by, you know, he's. I mean, he passes by. I mean, obviously he doesn't tell anybody that he's gonna pass by. But when he passes by, you can straight up tell these that it's him, you know, because of the car that he drives. And the papa. Well, I don't want to say paparazzi, but sometimes he does pass by with other cars, passes by, you know, talks to everybody, like, you know, just like normal person. And half an hour later, an hour later, you know, you see a food truck parked right here, like, oh, you know, free tacos for everybody. Oh, next, you know, he sends up a pusa lady bro on the other, on the other side of the prize on the corner, like, oh, popular for everybody. And everybody's making line of it, like, oh, who. Who sponsored this? Or who's anonymous? But we. We already know it's him.
- [51:57]
Community Member 2
I think God created the. Created. The most perfect machine is us. But we chose, excuse my language, we chose to it up into certain things. And that AI part, I can't rely on a machine. Personally, I think AI is great. But my point is, like, everything, electronics and AI is going to be our downfall someday. It's great. Everybody's just getting lazier and lazier because I'm a coach, I'm a mentor, and I see the way we rely on it. We rely on it too much. And I can see the generations that I coach now, they're totally different than before because they want everything right in their hand.
- [52:33]
Community Member 1
Yeah, but AI took over a lot. It doesn't, let's say it's helpful, but at the same time, I believe that is making people lazy. Lazy to do certain things.
- [52:46]
Will
I think there is a place for AI in our society, but it needs balance. It cannot take over society or else
- [52:55]
Akil
people won't have jobs, we won't have
- [52:58]
Will
work for anybody, and people will go hungry. And that's a big problem for our
- [53:01]
Akil
society that we are not ready for.
- [53:03]
Student
It's what everyone's scared about right now, right?
- [53:05]
Akil
Like job security with AI, Right? Like,
- [53:09]
Student
how do I live?
- [53:09]
Akil
Right.
- [53:10]
Student
If you went to school your whole
- [53:12]
Akil
life and you have a job now, and that job's not something that cannot last. Our parents are immigrants.
- [53:20]
Student
They came here becoming nurses.
- [53:21]
Akil
And even that is not a stable job anymore.
- [53:24]
Will
I don't think AI should replace us to govern ourselves in a jurisdiction form. I think it would remove the humanity
- [53:37]
Akil
we have and the freedom and responsibility we have to dictate and govern ourselves.
- [53:44]
Student
The way AI works, it just feeds from everything that, you know, people have created. I don't know what the margin of
- [53:53]
Will
error could look like.
- [53:54]
Student
On something that delivers justice like that, there's a lot of factors that go in, you know. You know, even mercy too, which I feel like an AI wouldn't even be able to comprehend, you know, like showing
- [54:04]
Will
mercy on anybody, knowing crimes and stuff
- [54:07]
Community Member 1
like that, something like that. That's what I feel. If I could do that to make justice for people that deserve freedom, a
- [54:15]
Will
machine would be very factual. But I don't know where sometimes instincts, humanity comes involved in making decisions. And I can't see where a machine would be able to do that effectively. So, yeah, so I, I don't know. I, I, I, I don't see where an AI controlled government would necessarily be what I'd be interested in.
- [54:37]
Student
So if like a, would I pledge
- [54:39]
Will
a nation to a machine, like a country that was run by a machine, I would not. If AI was in control of that. I think still you still have the idea of having like a nation as like your personality or your culture.
- [54:53]
Student
I, I use AI I definitely like, I use it for like all of my school stuff. Like, I trust it. I, I don't know in like that type of way if I would trust it.
- [55:03]
Akil
I think the problem with trusting AI is trusting who's controlling it. Yeah, who's controlling it? And I think it's one of the biggest things, I think just psychologically, anyone, any human being who has a lot of power ends up being corrupt and for their own reasons. And I think that's the tough part. And I think people are trying to put AI in charge of that so that we don't have that corruption. But then it's like, do we trust this AI that's there? Obviously there's just like a lot of complications that comes with it. So I don't know if you could
- [55:24]
Will
put everything into that at the same
- [55:26]
Akil
time, because it's still new, it's still
- [55:28]
Will
something that's developing, and at like any moment, like, something can go wrong and then boom, it's over.
- [55:32]
Student
Yeah, that's the thing with like, trusting it, because you don't know what's behind it.
- [55:35]
Will
You know, if a something that's not human can solve humanity's problems, I'd be down for it. I don't know. But I don't think that I, I don't think I'm in that place where I would trust that. You know, I think there's a lot of, you know, I, I do think there's like, benefits of AI, but I do think there's like a lot of
- [55:54]
Student
still issues with it.
- [55:55]
Will
And I still think there's, you know, a lot of the problems with AI is like the black box concept that you don't, you know, you aren't fully sure on how it's getting to certain answers and how it's getting to certain things. I do think people put way too much weight in AI. Yeah, it's just like it's not going
- [56:12]
Akil
to be able to solve world peace. It's not going to be able to
- [56:14]
Will
like cure anything like humanity wise. It's just I don't think it has that capability at all. I don't trust AI, bottom line, even
- [56:23]
Akil
though I know the AI is not working in the way that most of the people want. But for me it's like, it's like a new humanity doing things for our world. Because I don't know, but I was reading about in Japan that they have AI robots taking care of the older people. But the older people were saying that they cannot listening with feelings. Now they are working, making robots that they can cry with the people that they care of. So it's something, you know, very crazy. But if they can do things that we don't want anymore in this world, it's okay. I think it's worth it.