Arizona State University students are creating advanced artificial intelligence personas in a new course called “The Agentic Self,” which is taught by musician and tech entrepreneur will.i.am, according to a March 31 announcement. Nearly 80 students from various majors and age groups are participating in the class, held both in Tempe and Los Angeles, where they learn to build AI agents that reflect their own values, voices, and goals.
The development of these personal AI agents marks a significant step for education as it explores how technology can be personalized for learning and creative work. The course uses the EDU.FYI platform—a collaboration between ASU and FYI.AI, will.i.am’s company—to allow students to design agents that operate privately rather than on public clouds.
Will.i.am said, “Agentic is the next step, where the agent is able to do tasks and workflows on your behalf. You set it on its course, and it would reason, research, browse, generate — all autonomously.” He added that this approach gives users control over their data compared to traditional large language models like ChatGPT or Claude.
Dhruv Patel, a third-year computer science student at ASU taking the class, said he wants his agent “to be a riffing buddy or a friend I can bounce ideas off of.” Patel noted that learning about agentic AI from an artist’s perspective was different from technical instruction: “It’s another thing to learn it from this creative genius who can explain it to me in a way that only an artist could.”
Peter Murrieta of ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts described the importance of ethical considerations: “This class is asking the question… ‘What do we believe in? What do we care about? What would we never give up?’ And the idea of creating an agent for yourself where you own all the materials you’re putting into that agent makes it much easier to move forward in the world.”
Sean Hobson from EdPlus at ASU said working with will.i.am has been creatively expansive: “Pair that with a university built to move at the speed of the moment… you get something rare — a course where students aren’t just studying the future, they’re building it.”
According to Arizona State University, ASU has been recognized as number one in innovation for eight consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report. The university also offers multiple undergraduate and graduate degrees focusing on artificial intelligence.
Ethical design remains central throughout this initiative. Professor Pavan Turaga encouraged students to consider what information they are willing—or not willing—to share with their agents due to potential implications.
Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University who participated as guest lecturer for this class session with will.i.am present asked him: “These students are about to design and deploy agents… What is one concrete design principle you would ask every student here…?” Crow responded: “Empathy… The worst thing to be is intelligent or intelligently enhanced and be without empathy.”
In related innovation efforts involving technology partnerships at ASU, according to a press release, Argos Vision—a tech startup connected with Arizona State University—is developing smart traffic cameras for Phoenix under a one-year pilot program aimed at improving safety through data analysis.
