Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am trades the mic for a syllabus, teaching AI at ASU

PHOENIX – Musician will.i.am is taking on a new title this year: Professor.

The Black Eyed Peas front man is teaching a course at Arizona State University this semester called “The Agentic Self“, which focuses on artificial intelligence and building AI agents.

Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence that focuses on one specific area rather than general knowledge and acts autonomously.

will.i.am said the goal is to prepare students for technology that is already being built, rather than wait for it to arrive.

“You could use AI or AI could use you,” he said. “We want to encourage folks to use AI. And if you don’t use it, you know, you will be used, which is a horrible reality,” he said.

will.i.am said that while AI is growing, it hasn’t reached everyone yet. He wants his students to be ready to help small businesses and everyday people build AI agents of their own.

“Technology is not slowing down. It’s speeding up. And so next semester is just going to be an accelerated version of what we’ve started. More capabilities, more functionality, more ethics [and] more accountability,” he said.

The class is a hybrid course taught out of will.i.am’s Hollywood studio, with some students in-person and others joining the course online.

will.i.am compared being in a college classroom to standing on stage as a musician. He noted his band performed at ASU nearly 30 years ago.

“We played ASU and our music played on their college radio,” he reminisced. “Now, because of success, I started a business. We created a tool and that tool is now being taught at ASU.”

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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