“This is probably one of the last years where it's only humans on the red carpet... That agent and robot will be here before 2030”: Will.i.am thinks Grammys will be given to bots by the end of the decade

Black Eyed Peas mainman Will.i.am has always been an eager advocate of tech, but now he’s predicting that come the turn of the decade, robots will be being interviewed on the Grammys red carpet.

The rapper and producer was being interviewed by Associated Press at the ceremony on Sunday night and explained: “The reason why I'm here at the red carpet at the Grammys 2026 is because I predict that this is probably one of the last years where it's only humans on the red carpet.

"Just like if you were to go out and absorb what the world was like in 2022. 2022 is one of the last years where it was only humans driving cars on the streets. Now there's Waymos (driverless vehicles) on the streets.”

Taking an analogy from that sector – level five autonomy refers to the fully automated cars the rapper thinks will soon will be a common sight on our highways – he believes that the idea will extend to the Recording Academy’s annual awards bash.

“There will be level-five artistry, and that level-five artistry will be agents and robots,” he argued. “That agent and robot will be here on the red carpet before 2030, and AP will be like, ‘Hey, whatever the name of that bot is,’ and it then will be telling you the things that it's done and what it's working on.”

The Recording Academy doesn’t seem that keen to let the bots takeover. At the moment, anyway. Back in 2024, its CEO, Harvey Mason Jr confirmed that the Grammys honoured “only human creators”.

During a testimony as part of a House Judiciary Committee on AI that year, he said: "The Recording Academy is in the business of celebrating human excellence and human creativity.”

That policy, however, could always change.