will.i.am International Recording Artist, Producer, Technologist, Entrepreneur and
Intel Corporation’s Director of Creative Innovation
having hired musician and media personality will.i.am to help them devise and promote their products. On Intel’s ticket at IBC the 37-year- old gave his idiosyncratic take on the subject.
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His advice to broadcasters for example: “Technology now makes an instant connection for people to watch what they want anywhere and appointment to view is over. What I would do if I were a broadcaster is surround myself with brilliant software coders and platform builders to create change. Imagine if ABC had created YouTube or Kodak had bought Instagram? They didn’t – but they could have. The problem in big organisations is that the CFO blocks innovation because they want to see monetisation. That’s why start-ups like Google or Twitter can impact change - by creating tools that become mass adopted only by thinking about monetisation later.” He even revealed an idea for a new TV format to encourage the next generation of inventors, possibly with Intel as the sponsor. “Why is there not a TV show which discovers and showcases the next software genius or creative computing talent?” he asks. “TV content is too narrow. I can’t remember the new songs that winners of The Voice or The X Factor put out there. There are millions of people with ideas in technology and creativity who we should be helping.” A week before IBC2012, will.i.am had the honour of hearing his latest single premiered 225m km from Earth via the Curiosity rover stationed on the surface of Mars.
20 million fans on Twitter
What’s more space agency NASA marked the occasion by partnering with the hip hop impres-
college scholarships to youngsters in Boyle Heights, the LA neighbourhood where he grew up. Both events reveal two of the driving forces in his life: the fusion of high-concept technology with creativity and the power of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) to help the disadvantaged.
“How can youngsters become the next Mark Zuckerberg if they are
echnology has been shown to inspire creativity but can creativity inspire new technology? Intel certainly thinks so,
If I were a broadcaster I’d surround myself with software coders and platform builders to create change
credit illiterate and technology illit- erate?,” he asked. “My mission over the next 20 years is to change that scenario for the people of Boyle Heights.” As Intel’s director of creative inno- vation, the Black Eyed Peas frontman has collaborated with Intel scientists, programmers and marketers to promote content, technology and hardware strategies, chief among Intel’s notebook line Ultrabook. He has used Ultrabooks to communi- cate via social media while on tour and to compose new music. “I didn't want to just put my signa-
ture on some product,” he said. “Intel makes the brain - that's why I wanted to hook up with them. Elaborating he adds: “The music industry has moved from selling music on gramophones to selling songs as files. I want to move from selling songs on iTunes to selling hardware – intelligent hardware. “The biggest pieces of hardware in
Reach for the stars
The music star and techno-visionary wowed IBC with his unique, entertaining and inspiring take on technology as a force for change
anyone’s life are their house and car yet these are also the dumbest. The car should be the most intelligent thing you own and it should talk to the house which is even more intelli- gent. Instead of giving all the content and data which we consume and create to private organisations we should be able to keep and access them via cloud storage in our own homes powered by servers kept in the fridge.”
He also tweets to 20 million fans but doesn’t agree with Facebook’s founder that the age of privacy is over.
“My public life is sharing my perspective and art and passion but I still have a private life and I hold onto it for dear life,” he said. “Mark Zuckerberg’s point is that a lot of people live their lives on Facebook. “I believe creativity enhanced by technology has the capacity to change cultures for the better. Tech- nology allows us to amplify our ideas, amplify our creativity, and find new ways of solving problems.” AP