Humans Fight Back

The Human Difference

will.i.am is one of music’s most recognisable and likeable stars, and in the UK many came to know his personality, creativity and instinct for encouraging talent through The Voice.

Proof of Life

As AI can now generate music and video in seconds, will.i.am is proposing a new human-first file format called Proof of Life, or POL, designed to distinguish work shaped by real musicians, performers and creators from content generated by machines.

Sweat Still Matters

His argument is simple, why should an AI-generated track be measured in exactly the same way as something built through years of practice, careful drumming, guitar playing, writing, rehearsal and human effort?

A New Label for Human Creativity

MP3 and MP4 no longer tell us who or what created the content, while POL could become a digital mark that says something increasingly valuable in the age of AI, a human made this.

The Lomond Logic View

AI will make creation faster, cheaper and more abundant, which means genuinely human work may become more valuable rather than less.

Proof of Life is an interesting idea because the next digital premium may not be perfect content, but content where we can prove a person actually cared enough to make it.