Music popstar will.i.am meshes AI and ‘micromobility’

Will.i.am poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on April 24, 2013. (AP / Invision / Matt Sayles)

Black Eyed Peas star will.i.am is putting artificial intelligence agents to work in three-wheel vehicles tailored for modern urban life.

The musician turned tech entrepreneur demonstrated a so-called autocycle called Trinity at Nvidia’s annual developers conference that ends Thursday in the heart of Silicon Valley.

“I’m an artistic creator because of tech,” will.i.am told AFP.

“Creating with musical teams is great, but hopping into a different realm and being hyper creative with full-stack developers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, world builders -- that is the ultimate level of creativity.”

His Trinity startup is named for an alignment of human, vehicle and agentic AI.

The single-passenger electric vehicle, which shares its name with the startup, lets a human do the driving but is infused with an AI agent that acts as a virtual assistant for conversation-based collaborations on the move, he will.i.am said.

“When a human has an agent of their own, a company has a super employee,” he said of brainstorming and delegating tasks to Trinity AI agents conversationally while commuting.

“Their vehicle that got them to work is a part of their tool set; and it’s working in the parking lot while they work,” he added, referring to Trinity as “brains on wheels.”

The vehicle, designed to accelerate quickly from zero to 60 m/h (96 km/h), uses an Nvidia graphics processor to power built-in AI that can interpret and reason about the world around it, according to the startup.

The vehicles are to be made in a Los Angeles facility that will also serve as a school for robotics and agentic AI systems.

“I was ambitious, audacious and a little bit of naive,” will.i.am said of pursuing the project.

“That’s a good combination, because if you don’t have that little bit of naive and everything is skeptical, you probably wouldn’t take crazy risks.”

An initial production of run of 500 units is planned, with an aim to begin deliveries in August of next year, and to keep the vehicle’s price at less than US$30,000.