As an AI entrepreneur, will.i.am says data privacy and training the next generation should be prioritized

• Musician will.i.am, and founder of the platform FYI.Ai, spoke during Business Insider's CMO Insider breakfast at Cannes.
• He discussed everything from AI to data privacy.
• This article is part of "CMO Insider," a series on marketing leadership and innovation.

Musician, producer, and entrepreneur will.i.am compared AI to early video games during a discussion at Business Insider's CMO Insider breakfast at Cannes on Tuesday. "AI is in its infancy," he said. "It's Pac-Man; it ain't even Halo yet."

Now a founder of the platform FYI.Ai , will.i.am was interviewed by Jamie Heller, the editor in chief of Business Insider, at the event, which had BCG as its founding sponsor.

Early video games, will.i.am said, required a level of imagination from the player in the absence of sophisticated graphics and a real story. This same level of imagination is needed from "the people that love AI, the folks whose imagination is doing the work as you're training it or it's learning from your imagination," he said. He said AI will not stifle creativity, but provide room to enhance it.

While AI may be in its early stages, its potential impact over the next few years is undeniable. One area that will need to adjust to make way for AI is higher education.

That is why, will.i.am said, FYI.Ai recently partnered with Arizona State University to provide technology to help enhance the learning experience and prepare students for the reality that awaits them upon graduation at the end of the decade. "When you go out into the world, you're not just competing with humans," he said of these students. Rather, there's an "onslaught of agents" that are replacing the jobs that students are going to school for, and there's no one trying to offset how they compete with them, he said.

He said working with FYI.Ai is going to provide a path so that students will make an agent of their own; when they graduate, so will their agent. "Humans have to be able to compete with the marketplace, and that marketplace is going to be like ghost bots that are going to be doing amazing work," he added.

Like-minded partners

FYI.Ai is currently working with brands like Formula 1, Mercedes, and Qualcomm. In looking for brands to work with, will.i.am said that there has to be a sense of shared values.

"If the values aren't aligned, that could be a problem," he said. "For example, it'll be hard for us to work with companies that have data privacy practices that don't really gel with how we want to move in this AI space." He added that he's fearful that AI could follow the same trajectory of many social media platforms, whose data practices have been "parasitic."

"There have been lots of issues with data practices and lack of regulations and governance around it," he said. "So if that is to come into this new age we are stepping into with AI, it's not a good result."