{"id":8439,"date":"2026-01-31T01:31:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T01:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/will-i-am-ai-black-music-action-coalition-grammy-week-recap\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T01:31:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T01:31:37","slug":"will-i-am-ai-black-music-action-coalition-grammy-week-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/will-i-am-ai-black-music-action-coalition-grammy-week-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Will.i.am Addresses Benefits & Challenges of AI: \u2018Throw Your Imagination on Full F\u2014king\u00a0Blast\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s an awesome time to be creative and use AI. Don\u2019t just use it to do what we did yesterday because it\u2019s going to do it better than you. AI does not have imagination. It\u2019s a regurgitation of imagination. And the way to beat it to be AI-proof is to throw your imagination on full f\u2014king blast and not repeat what we did yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo declared Will.i.am<\/a> during an informative and illuminating panel discussion hosted on Wednesday (Jan. 28) by the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), Universal Music Group (UMG) and Billboard<\/em>. The seven-time Grammy winner and soon-to-be professor, who will be teaching a new AI course at Arizona State University this spring, joined a mix of executives and creatives in dissecting the technology\u2019s benefits and challenges at the event, which was held under the banner, \u201cArtists & Music in the Age of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tA Complete Guide to Every 2026 Grammy Party & Event\u00a0(Updating)\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tThe afternoon event, held at Will.i.am\u2019s FYI campus in Los Angeles, was composed of two panels. The first, moderated by Blue Note Records president and musician Don Was<\/strong>, featured Stability AI\u2019s Prem Akkaraju<\/strong>, Songwriters of North America executive and songwriter Erin McAnally<\/strong>, Splice\u2019s Kakul Srivastava<\/strong> and Sound Labs executive and artist BT<\/strong>. Sitting with Will.i.am on the second panel were KLAY Vision\u2019s Ary Attie<\/strong>, NVIDIA\u2019s Shari Reich<\/strong> and Udio\u2019s Andrew Sanchez<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first panel\u2019s moderator, UMG executive vp and chief digital officer Michael Nash<\/strong>, summed up the conversation\u2019s consensus. \u201cThe hopeful thing is we\u2019re having this discussion now,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s early days, and there is an opportunity for a collaboration to take place that\u2019s going to align the future of AI- driven innovation with the interests of the artist community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the event, BMAC co-founder and president\/CEO Willie \u201cProphet\u201d Stiggers<\/strong> said in part, \u201cInnovation should expand opportunity, not erase it. We\u2019re proud to partner with Universal Music Group on a groundbreaking convening that brings CEOs, artists and advocates into the same room. We also thank the technology companies \u2026 who showed up in true partnership by bringing creatives into the conversation. When creators are included in the decision-making, innovation becomes a force for progress, not disruption. A seat at the table for creators is not optional. It is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLater that evening, BMAC hosted its annual Music Maker Dinner in association with producer icons Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis<\/a> at West Hollywood\u2019s Sun Rose Room. Among the industry executives joining fellow BMAC co-founders Shawn Holiday<\/strong>, Caron Veazey<\/strong> and Damien Smith<\/strong> were ASCAP president Paul Williams<\/strong>, Def Jam Recordings CEO Tunji Balogun<\/strong>, Victoria Monet<\/a>, Jon Batiste<\/a>, Adam Blackstone<\/a>, B2K<\/a>, Flavor Flav<\/a>, Amazon\u2019s global head of music industry and culture collaborations Phylicia Fant <\/strong>and Interscope Geffen A&M\u2019s president\/head of urban A&R Nicole Wyskoarko<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n\tJonathan Azu<\/strong>, founder\/CEO of artist management firm Culture Collective (Leon Thomas), received BMAC\u2019s inaugural Music Maker Impact Award. And the winners of the 2026 BMAC x ASCAP x Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis Music Maker Grant were announced: Ripton Powell from Atlanta and Sam Paulino from Burlington, Vt.<\/p>\n

\n\tBMAC kicked off its Grammy Week observance with the Tuesday (Jan. 27) masterclass \u201cAm I The Drama? How Cardi B Turned Authenticity into a Marketing Superpower.\u201d Key members of Cardi B<\/a>\u2018s team \u2014including manager and Giant Music co-founder Holiday, day-to-day manager at Full Stop Management Courtney Worrell<\/strong>, Atlantic Records executive vp of sales & streaming Angelique Jones<\/strong> and Walmart head of experiential marketing & cultural engagement Allison Barrie Rand<\/strong> \u2014\u00a0spoke with moderator and cultural marketer Sierra Lever<\/strong>. BMAC partnered with CURATED by Live Nation in organizing the session about Cardi B, whose Little Miss Drama Tour begins Feb. 11.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s an awesome time to be creative and use AI. Don\u2019t just use it to do what we did yesterday because it\u2019s going to do it better than you. AI…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5219,1925,387,502,5220,5221,94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-black-music-action-coalition","category-bmac","category-business","category-business-news","category-grammy-week","category-music-genres","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}