Musician and entrepreneur will.i.am is teaching a weekly course at Arizona State University focused on training students to build autonomous AI agents for a changing employment landscape.

Key Points

• Will.i.am leads a three-hour weekly class at Arizona State University where roughly 80 students learn to develop autonomous software agents.
• The curriculum emphasizes "agentic AI," which refers to systems capable of performing tasks without requiring constant human prompts.
• Will.i.am recently debuted "MÖFO," an AI-powered companion device developed with Qualcomm, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
• The artist maintains significant financial ties to the tech industry as an investor in companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, and the music platform Udio.
• His career includes co-founding Beats Electronics, which was acquired by Apple for $3 billion in 2014.

Why it Matters

This initiative highlights the growing intersection between celebrity influence and technical education as AI continues to reshape the global job market. By bridging the gap between creative arts and software development, will.i.am aims to prepare the next generation for a workforce increasingly reliant on autonomous technology.