Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Fans of the popular morning radio show The Breakfast Club know that co host Leonard McKelvie, better known as Charlemaine the God Like sand dip his toes into various sectors, whether that's writing a New York Times bestseller or serving as ambassador for the Food Bank for New York City. Well, now he has expanded to artificial intelligence by investing in AI company meet Kai, where he will also be a strategic advisor to help
the company drive growth and engagement for content creation. I'm pleased to say here in studio for more on this is TV and radio personality Charlaine the God and Peter John Alexander, chief business officer of meet Kai.
Welcome, gentlemen, thank you for having us us.
I got to start with you, Charlemaine, because me Kai bills itself as an immersive AI company. What have you seen from your perch in traditional media in radio that gets you excited about offering your content on meat Kai's virtual world.
Well, for me, I felt like, you know, it was the next level of what the the interview experience will be like, you know, like right now somebody's watching this on television, But imagine if you could actually be in the room, you know, as a part of a VR experience as where you know, having this conversation or even you know, with Breakfast Club, we've been around for almost
fifteen years. So when you think about the catalog of back interviews that people like, whether it's the Soldier Boy, a Birdman, or whatever it is, any of those conversations, you can put yourself in the room of those conversations and I just feel like, you know, that's that's where social media is going to have that virtual reality experience of actually being next to the person that you're watching instead of just watching them.
Right, It's a whole new way of experiencing it. So, Peter John, if this is the metaverse, and that's kind of what charl Maynett was describing, how is it similar to or different than what Mark Zuckerberg has been building out and frankly not making a lot of money on.
I think meta And you know what Mark has been focusing on the hardware aspect, which is extremely difficult, and what they've been able to accomplish since they've started is truly groundbreaking. With Oculus, Apple obviously stepped into the ring as well, and to Charlotte's point, we've been really focusing
on software and how that changes. When we met about a year ago, we talked about what the future of social entertainment is and we believe this is one aspect and using our immersive platform as well as our intelligence platform, the convergence of AI and these immersive experiences is what that future will be.
I mean, I like what Charlie Mooreen was talking about with regards to maybe being kind of like the fly on the wall as he's doing these interviews and stuff here, But explain to me as a user how I would access. Am I gonna need like a VR type of device or is this something that can maybe be done just on a regular phone or a regular computer screen.
So great question. What's great about our platform and what we've really focused on is mass user adoption, So being able to be browser in the browser, being device agnostics, so being on your phone, being on your computer, being on your tablet, being in a VR headset, working anywhere is what matters. So if you can bring the best in class experience with unbelieve visual fidelity and anywhere, it's going to get the most people there to experience what we're trying to build.
So charlet Manel is something like this though, I mean, let's just use your show as an example. Is this like the kind of thing where like I would even be able as a user maybe even ask a question or somehow interact with either you or your guests while you're doing the interview or is that not how it's going to work?
Yeah?
Absolutely, because it's like you know, when you see the live streams that people have now, like BREAKFASCE, Club Goals Live now, like we'll go live on YouTube or Instagram live and you're able to ask those same type of questions there. So it's the same thing.
Okay, so this is your first foray into AI. I'm wondering what kind of audiences you think being accessible on meet Kai will allow you to spread your brand or allow your brand to reach out to that you don't already through your syndicated radio show.
Well, I think nowadays, you know, remember back in the day, they would say if you build it, you know they will come. Nowadays, you have to meet people where they are, So everybody's going to be in these spaces anyway, so we might as well meet them where they are not and.
Of course, part of the value proposition of someone like Charlottage involved in meek Kai is the kinds of creators and influencers that he can bring to your platform. Can you give me a better idea of what you're looking for from that end?
Yeah, not only that and relationships, and we've talked a lot about that, but the wealth of knowledge that he has for being in this industry for decades and his approach to what we're building is going to be instrumental as it relates to our success. So we've talked a lot about, you know, the people that he's interested in bringing to the platform, and I can let him speak to that, but we've worked with some really big names
right from the NBPA to BYD. There's new worlds coming online that are focused solely on the consumer end, from the Detroit Pistons to the Pro Football Hall of Fame to Florida State, mixing AI and immersive for the future of education. And then we also have as I talked about that convergence is pure play AI that will power these in immersive opportunities that Charlie was saying, being able to talk to someone regardless of they're human or not.
One of those platforms. That's really exciting. That's built off of our ai is Ascari which goes live today, so built on functionary and our family Donald's here at me.
Kay, So what are you looking to bring Charlotte Man like when you talk about the types of additional guests and just really the type of people that are going to be platformed on.
This everything you know from from from podcasts to you know, comedy shows. You know, the live podcast aspect is something that really intrigues me because you know, we all tune into our favorite podcast every week. And I have a podcast network called The Black Effect Podcast Network. But imagine if instead of just you know, watching it on YouTube, you can be a partner, like you said, a fly on the wall of the actual show every week.
Yeah, and I'm all in on all this pot Did you see the call your daddy girl got like, oh my god, are you ready to read a ship your contract?
Also to another good experiences is the audiobooks, right, because you know we all like to listen to audiobooks nowadays. But imagine if you could just sit there and like, you know, sit at the feet of your favorite author they're actually performing their audiobook in front of you. I just think that makes the whole experience, you know, of listening to the audiobooks better.
I am curious how you and Peter John hooked up. Did you approach him because of the product or did he reach out to you because of your experience in media and all the business ventures that you had.
Man some things that just god Like, I was in we was in cans Can last year and I was just sitting around at an.
iHeart party and you know, as one does.
Yeah, and him and James approached me, and you know, they told me about the AI thing, and I was just having a conversation about these visions that I've been having about what I'm talking about now, and they were like, we're already doing that. So it was just kind of a natural collaboration.
How much AI do you dobble in right now? Not much?
Chad GPT is about as far as I've been going. And now meek Yeah.
And in terms of timeline, here John, what are we looking at before we start to see Charmaine on meek Kai's various platforms?
So I think very soon. What's special about our platform and what we've been able to build is how fast we come to market we're Traditionally, I think people approach building these experiences as video games, and I don't think that's the right way to do it. We focus on, you know, using AI at every turn to make these experiences fast and better in every way, and that allows us to kind of have development times that are days
and weeks is supposed to months and years. So yeah, I think we've been talking about the vision of what's to come, and I think you'll see some exciting things very soon.
This one final quick question, Charlottete, like when we talk about like sort of the future of these shows here, so do you see in a vision where maybe these shows won't be just on radio or even on radio at all or even on TV, that maybe they will end up on sort of a meet Kai type of platform just like that.
They're that way now, Like none of these shows exist in one space anymore. Like I said, you know, you build it. People aren't just going to come to you. You have to meet people where they are, so you for example, Breakfast Club, we're on the radio, but we also come out in the daily podcast every day, and we also put out clips on social media and we're on YouTube. So that's why we have the audience we have.
You're talking about, you know, eight million monthly listeners on terrestrial radio, but then fifteen to twenty million downloads a month on the podcast, then the YouTube, then the social media. So you have to exist in all of these spaces out there. You can't take one piece of content and serve it twenty different places.
All right, and you got a lot of content. Have you talked to Birdman lately?
No?
No, no, all right, let meave it there.
Charlemagne the God and Peter John Alexander. Charlemagne investing here in me Kai a new a virtual world platform, if you will. That maybe is the future of media, Scarlett. Maybe we should look into this.
I think our kids will look into this.