Will.I.Am has a new radio venture. I’m not sure I like it.
Even when the Black Eyed Peas were a musical force, Will.I.Am was always forward-looking, especially when it came to tech. Success has been hit and miss.
Now he has a company called FYI.AI which has just launched something called RAiDiO.FYI. I quote from a press released that landed in my inbox: “Putting the Ai into RAiDiO and STAiTioN, RAiDiO.FYI is ready to transform the industry, busting through the walls of traditional one-way media limitations.”
It goes on to talk about “evolving broadcasting into hyper-casting,” a situation that will allow anyone to create their own radio station-type thing by mixing music, news, and other spoken word work. “Curated channels featuring exclusive content will be available across a range of interests, elevating every listener into an active participant in a living info-verse.”
Here’s more from the press release on the venture’s key features:
AI Personas: will help listeners curate the news, collecting and delivering the information they crave in real time. Choose from a variety of AI personas, unique voices that reflect culture, from the streets of South Los Angeles to the pulsing Latin neighborhoods of Miami, to the underground clubs of East London. (Right: Fake voices that need to be trained on the work of real DJs and announcers.)
Creators: FYI partners with content creators to curate and publish stations with the latest and freshest news from culture, sports, tech, politics and more. (Fine: It’ll be just like social media where people create their own little bubbles consisting of content and information that they find agreeable and matches their feelings.)
Customized Stations: artists, brand and events can now have bespoke stations with curated content and information. (Actually, that’s kinda neat.)
Personalization: Listeners can customize their own radio stations by curating specific news and topics they want to listen to, providing a deeply personalized experience. (This is called ego-casting: The creation of an information newsfeed that doesn’t contain anything you don’t agree with or don’t want to hear.)
Comm-Versations: A fusion of conversations and commerce, listeners will soon be able to interact with customized ads that act as a personal concierge. (Again, kinda cool.)
Everything will debut something later this year via an app.
Cool idea, but as a flesh-and-blood life-long radio person, you can see why I’m concerned.
