2025-03-06

An AI Conversation for Everyday People w/ Will.i.am & Van Jones | EP #154

Peter Diamandis sits down with Will.i.am and Van Jones to talk about 'Make Wakanda Real,' their effort to bring AI access and hope to Black, African, and underserved communities. Will.i.am argues Africa's youth boom and its total lack of GPU infrastructure make it the next great AI frontier, while Van Jones frames AI as a 'jetpack, not a hand grenade' that only helps marginalized communities if there's deliberate intention behind it. The conversation ranges across personal AI ownership, a looming AI energy crunch, humanoid robots, rethinking education, and why cable news is structurally rewarded for negativity.

▶ Watch on YouTube

Topics

Make Wakanda Real Other ▶ 9:22

Will.i.am and Van Jones explain their program using the Marvel 'Wakanda' metaphor to answer despair in Black and underserved communities with AI access and hope.

Africa's youth boom Geopolitics ▶ 13:19

The panel argues Africa's young population will make it the next major economic and cultural force after China and India, with China already investing heavily via Belt and Road.

Bringing GPUs to Africa Compute ▶ 16:34

Will.i.am reveals the African continent currently has zero GPUs and announces a March 17 partnership to bring the first major GPU cluster to several African nations.

Cultural preservation in LLMs AI ▶ 18:10

Today's largest LLMs are built on a 'Western canon'; the panel discusses training culturally specific models that preserve oral histories, even from grandparents with no written language.

A new human civilization Other ▶ 18:43

Will.i.am reflects that his young children will grow up in a fundamentally different civilization, possibly having an AI as a first crush and being buried on the Moon or Mars.

Level-five companies and the end of DEI Economy ▶ 40:59

Will.i.am predicts fully autonomous 'level five' companies with no humans in the loop by 2035, arguing companies dropping DEI programs are quietly preparing to replace workers with AI.

Owning your own 'identic' AI AI ▶ 46:52

Will.i.am argues personal AI and data should be privately owned like your immune system, not rented from a shared cloud, and won't connect his brain to a cloud BCI until that exists.

The coming AI energy crunch Energy ▶ 1:13:23

Van Jones warns AI data centers could raise US energy demand 23-34% within 36 months, warning ordinary people will struggle to pay electric bills while AI firms absorb the cost.

Edge AI arriving on phones Compute ▶ 1:15:40

Peter and Will.i.am discuss new chips enabling fully on-device AI models that need no cloud connection, putting a personal, offline AI into nearly every smartphone.

Rebuilding education for AI Other ▶ 1:01:08

Peter argues education doesn't prepare kids for an AI future and teachers fear it; Will.i.am counters the real digital divide is now a mindset ('wetwear') problem, not hardware or software.

Humanoid robots and labor Robotics ▶ 1:11:58

Peter cites investments in Figure, Tesla Bot, Unitree, Digit, and Apollo, predicting humanoid robots near $30,000 each and up to 10 billion of them by 2040.

News negativity vs. AI-curated news Other ▶ 1:39:32

Peter and Van Jones discuss how cable news is structurally rewarded for conflict -- even Van's own positive segments tanked ratings -- and both now get personalized news from their own AI tools.

Predictions made

open Will.i.am: A major GPU cluster partnership will be announced bringing the first mega-cluster of GPUs to 4-5 African nations including Nigeria and Egypt.

· due: 2025-03-17 · ▶ watch

“on March 17th we have an announcement to bring a cluster of gpus to the continent”

Your call:

open Will.i.am: By 2035 there will be fully autonomous 'level five' companies operating with no humans in the loop at all.

· due: 2035 · ▶ watch

“this means by 2035 there are level five companies”

Your call:

open Will.i.am: The term 'level five companies' will become widely used by around 2027.

· due: 2027 · ▶ watch

“level five companies is 2027 start hearing it, you hear it here first”

Your call:

open Will.i.am: High-bandwidth brain-computer interfaces will arrive by the early 2030s, around 2033, per Ray Kurzweil.

· due: 2033 · ▶ watch

“Ray talks about BCI brain computer interface at high bandwidth by the early 2030s 2033 or thereabouts”

Your call:

open Peter Diamandis: There will be as many as 10 billion humanoid robots on the planet by 2040.

· due: 2040 · ▶ watch

“the prediction is you will have by 2040 as many as 10 billion humanoid robots”

Your call:

open Van Jones: AI data center buildout will raise US energy demand by 23-34% within the next 36 months, equivalent to adding 20 states to the grid.

· due: 2028 · ▶ watch

“an increase in energy demand United States of 23 to 34% if not more over the next 36 months”

Your call:

open Will.i.am: Fully on-device, offline AI phones are coming soon thanks to new mobile chips, ending the need for constant cloud connection.

· due: unspecified · ▶ watch

“we don't have AI phones yet... but it is coming”

Your call:

open Will.i.am: FYI will be integrated into cars before the end of 2025.

· due: 2025 · ▶ watch

“will'll be in cars this year as well”

Your call:

Numbers that matter

India has overtaken China as the world's largest nation with 1.41 billion people Cited while arguing Africa's youth will overtake both as the next demographic and economic force.
The African continent currently has zero GPUs Framed as the core infrastructure gap 'Make Wakanda Real' aims to close with a March 17 cluster announcement.
Roughly 100 well-funded humanoid robot companies now exist (Figure, Tesla Bot, Unitree, Digit, Apollo, etc.) Cited as evidence the humanoid robot market is scaling fast.
Humanoid robots are projected to cost about $30,000 to buy, or roughly $300/month (about 40 cents/hour) to lease Used to argue robot labor will soon undercut human labor costs.
The US produces about 4 terawatts of energy; China has tripled US output Cited as the backdrop for a looming AI-driven energy crunch.
AI data center buildout could raise US energy demand 23-34% within 36 months -- equivalent to adding 20 states to the grid Framed as a coming political flashpoint over electricity bills.
About 7 billion of the world's 8 billion humans now own a smartphone Cited as evidence intelligence has already been commoditized and democratized.
Fountain Life digitizes roughly 200 gigabytes of personal health data per scan to catch disease at inception Part of Peter's personal longevity routine, mentioned as a sponsor.
99% of Black kids and 99% of white kids don't know anything about AI Used to argue this is a rare moment of genuine equal footing before AI literacy spreads unevenly.

Worth digging into

🕳️ Africa's GPU-less AI gap and the March 17 cluster announcement

Will.i.am claims the entire African continent currently has zero GPUs, framing a major infrastructure and geopolitical opportunity tied to Cassava Technologies and Strive Masiyiwa.

🕳️ Level-five autonomous companies by 2035

Will.i.am ties dropped corporate DEI programs directly to a coming wave of fully autonomous companies with zero human employees -- a provocative causal claim worth testing against real adoption data.

🕳️ Personal 'identic' AI ownership vs. cloud BCI

Will.i.am refuses brain-computer interface access until personal AI/data ownership models exist -- a concrete gap between Kurzweil's 2033 BCI timeline and today's cloud-dependent AI architecture.

🕳️ CNN Crossfire's 'Ceasefire' ratings collapse

Van Jones's anecdote that a reconciliation segment tanked ratings is a concrete data point on why cable news is structurally biased toward conflict.

🕳️ US AI energy demand spike (23-34% in 36 months)

Van Jones cites a specific, checkable energy-demand figure tied to AI data center buildout that could reshape US electricity politics and pricing.