Twenty years ago, the world couldn’t get enough of Don’t Phunk With My Heart. The lightweight track kept the group Black Eyed Peas in the news. At the same time, it allowed creative ways for the band’s frontman, will.i.am, to make music that explored new technological offerings.

The rapper-singer-producer is going strong, and his life has gone beyond hits like Where Is The Love? and Let’s Get It Started. What William James Adams Jr. is also successful at is technology. At the moment, his focus is on FYI RAiDiO platform, which is trying to reinvent the radio. The 50-year-old musician-technologist made an appearance at Qualcomm India’s Snapdragon Auto Day in New Delhi.

The musician has been working closely with different partners — including Qualcomm — to make the project work.

The platform offers a set of interactive radio stations themed around topics like sports and pop culture. Unlike traditional radio, the level of interactivity is quite high because of the use of artificial intelligence. You can be welcomed by an AI host to speak about whatever comes to mind.

“I like to look at the car as something that has artificial self-awareness…. That is what we are aiming for. A lot of the brainstorming and aha moments came from my sessions and workshops at Mercedes,” said the musician.

The tech entrepreneur and founder (and CEO) of FYI.AI spoke about FYI RAiDiO and Melodic Drive features, optimised for Snapdragon Digital Chassis-powered devices. Demonstrated in collaboration with the Mahindra BE 6 and XEV 9e luxury electric vehicles, his company’s technology teamed with Qualcomm Technologies’ sensing software and audio processing, leveraging on-device personalisation and encourage ideation, content creation, and real-time vehicle and driver collaboration. It turns the car into a virtual musical instrument with the driver in control of the performance. Driver motion dynamics, including acceleration, braking, and steering, are incorporated to create new musical expressions in real-time.

Will.i.am with (left to right) Nakul Duggal, group general manager, automative and industrial and embedded IoT, Qualcomm Technologies, Don McGuire, chief marketing officer, Qualcomm, and Savi Soni, SVP and president, Qualcomm India. Picture: Mathures Paul

The integration of FYI RAiDiO as an interactive AI radio, highlights the next step of using AI in the car for hyper-personalisation when it comes to music and news. Designed to integrate third-party radio and broadcast stations, FYI RAiDiO uses language models, public web content, music licenses, and personalised voice characters, known as Personas, to create an engaging radio experience.

Personalisation is key to success, and Qualcomm knows this better than most companies, as the chipmaker has been working with a number of companies for a very long time.

The company’s Snapdragon Cockpit Platform solutions are designed to offer the processing power required for a new level of computing, AI, and cloud connectivity to deliver personalisation, convenience, and safety-focused enhancements to occupants of a car.

“One thing we have heard from customers and automakers is this concept of smart living space. We can think of a car as a space that is personal and as a space where you get to spend time by yourself and with your family. It is typically different from what you do with your phone, or what you do at your home,” said Nakul Duggal, group general manager, automative and industrial and embedded IoT, Qualcomm Technologies.

He continued: “When I met Will, what I found to be super cool is that he had really formed into sections what AI, content, and art mean in the context of what you would like to use. We thought of the Cockpit. We have created this springboard for our customers — for our Cockpit customers — to be able to bring their experiences onto our platforms and then be able to differentiate. It is a perfect intersection of where we can bring an artiste like Will, who is also a technologist, and then marry it with the Cockpit and the potential it holds.”

Make music personal

A clever feature of the FYI RAiDiO platform is the inclusion of voice characters who serve as radio hosts. Listeners can ask the AI host for information about any topic, including what’s currently playing, and receive real-time responses.

“It allows drivers to reimagine, recreate, and remix music by driving. Each drive is a (music) score to your life. FYI Radio is a simulation of what you know as radio, but in this case, it is interruptible and interactive. Interrupt the session and ask what is happening locally, globally… to engage with information. Cristiano Amon, the CEO of Qualcomm, saw the technology we have. It is one thing to create a journal that people would read; it is another thing to create a station that people would engage with,” said the Black Eyed Peas man.

Will.i.am is no stranger to AI. He was introduced to the many possibilities of AI by professor and AI expert Patrick Winston. He had a radio show on SiriusXM that he co-hosted with an AI called Qd.pi. He previously served as chip manufacturer Intel’s director of creative innovation

“When I started my first company, we focused on natural language understanding, natural image processing and machine learning. The team I had put together had engineers from Bangalore and Chennai. We created a voice operating system. And played around with a Snapdragon chip to create a product called the Dial, which launched around 2014. It was pretty early to be talking to a watch,” said the musician.

He has used technology to give music a lovable twist. For the Black Eyed Peas’ 2010 music video for the song Imma Be Rocking That Body, it kicks off with a skit where will.i.am shows off futuristic technology that can replicate any artiste’s voice, to the surprise of his bandmates. And that technology is readily available today.

The musician has been interested in technology for a long time. For example, he is behind i.am+ BUTTONS, a pair of Bluetooth headphones backed by magnetic metallic discs that look like a cross between earplugs and studs in the shape of old vinyl records. When not in use, the discs connect via the magnets to form a necklace of sorts.

He was part of the show Planet of the Apps, the first original television show produced by Apple, in 2018. He partnered with Honeywell in 2021 to debut XUPERMASK, a face technology designed to help you meet face mask guidelines without compromising style.

A few months ago, LG Electronics unveiled its audio product line of Bluetooth speakers and earbuds at CES 2025, created in partnership with the musician. The ‘xboom by will.i.am’ line is tuned by will.i.am. and is characterised by a more balanced audio profile with warmer tones.

“The car is the most scalable experience. We are familiar with smartphones and tablets, but there are millions of cars on the road at any given time. For engineers, this is a whole new area where people can be creative. We now have AI and natural language learning. These will get things done. So you will type and swipe on the screen fewer times. New companies are going to come, new industries will come. Infotainment is being transformed,” said will.i.am.

The man’s interest in technology, especially those that are futuristic, started in elementary school. AI, he believes, is the most promising technology at the moment. It will change the way we do everything, be it driving or authenticating identities. The human voice will be at the centre of the emerging technology.