Intel hires singer will.i.am as innovation director

* Takes job as Director of Creative Innovation

* To innovate music, multimedia, tablets

Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am has taken a job at Intel (INTC.O) to help innovate how music and other multimedia are used with smartphones and tablets.

The Grammy-winning musician was introduced on Tuesday as Intel's new Director of Creative Innovation, already outfitted with his Intel ID badge, at an internal sales conference in Anaheim, California.

Nearly everything I do involves processors and computers, and when I see an Intel chip I think of all the creative minds involved that help to amplify my own creativity, the singer said in a statement.

Will.i.am, born William Adams, is known for his career with the band Black Eyed Peas and his Yes We Can Barack Obama video, a huge hit on YouTube, where it has garnered millions of hits.

It's imperative that Intel and our innovations are kept in front of the global youth culture that embraces new devices and new forms of communication and entertainment, said Deborah Conrad, Intel's chief marketing officer.

She called his partnership with the company a marriage of entertainment and technology.

In 2008, will.i.am partnered with Blackberry-maker Research In Motion (RIM.TO) to help merge social networking and multimedia. Other high tech corporations keen to tap into youth trends and market their gadgets to young people have also enlisted pop stars.

Another current pop star, Lady Gaga, is creative director at Polaroid, where the singer, who wore a controversial meat dress to the MTV Video Music Awards last year, has helped develop camera-equipped sunglasses.

R&B singer Rihanna made a Kodak commercial selling digital cameras last year and Toshiba has enlisted rapper T-Pain to sell laptops. (Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Gary Hill)