Kurzweil joins Google to work on new projects involving machine learning and language processing
December 14, 2012
Ray Kurzweil confirmed today that he will be joining Google to work on new projects involving machine learning and language processing.
“I’m excited to share that I’ll be joining Google as Director of Engineering this Monday, December 17,” said Kurzweil.
“I’ve been interested in technology, and machine learning in particular, for a long time: when I was 14, I designed software that wrote original music, and later went on to invent the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, among other inventions. I’ve always worked to create practical systems that will make a difference in people’s lives, which is what excites me as an inventor.
“In 1999, I said that in about a decade we would see technologies such as self-driving cars and mobile phones that could answer your questions, and people criticized these predictions as unrealistic. Fast forward a decade — Google has demonstrated self-driving cars, and people are indeed asking questions of their Android phones. It’s easy to shrug our collective shoulders as if these technologies have always been around, but we’re really on a remarkable trajectory of quickening innovation, and Google is at the forefront of much of this development.
“I’m thrilled to be teaming up with Google to work on some of the hardest problems in computer science so we can turn the next decade’s ‘unrealistic’ visions into reality.”
Comments (79)
by Deleo77
It would be great if Google gave Ray a nice budget and a platoon of researchers to let him try to bring some of his concepts to life. Kurzweil is a big idea guy. If he has a bunch of programmers and scientists on his team, and a nice pile of money, I would look forward to seeing what he can come up with. It would also be great if he kept a blog to let us know what he is up to from time to time.
by Vladislav
It is worh mentioning that this research is funded by Google:
http://www.artificialbrains.com/openworm
David Dalrymple at Harvard/MIT (2011 – ongoing)
David Dalrymple is a PhD student at Harvard using optogenetics to determine the function, behaviour, and biophysics of each individual worm neuron with the goal of building a complete simulation of the nervous system. In a November 2011 lecture video he estimated the full analysis and emulation should take three to four years to develop. The goal is then to move on to more complicated organisms. The next step might be the five-day old zebrafish lavae with their ~100,000 neurons. Then the honey bee (960,000 neurons), then mouse (50 million neurons), and ultimately humans (~85 billion neurons). He expects a full cellular level emulation of the human brain within his lifetime. He was born 1991, so by ~2070.
There is limited written material available, but the lecture video linked above is good. His research home page: David Dalrymple at syntheticneurobiology.org. And here’s a paper by others at the Samuel Lab at Harvard where he’s working. David’s research is personally funded by Larry Page, CEO of Google.
David hopes to succeed where others have failed because:
he’s experimentally studying how the neurons work, rather than just using the connectome
he says previous attempts used the connectome without understanding the neurons
this was like trying to reverse engineer a radio when all you have is a schematic
that shows the wiring diagram without any info on the components that the wires connect
we also now have the technology for optogentics
so we can read-write to any point in the nervous system in a living organism
this can also be done using a high-throughput, automated system
by Robert
There are few people I admire as much as Mr. Kurzweil. Boundless talent and enthusiasm!
by Vladislav
“In 1999, I said that in about a decade we would see technologies such as self-driving cars and mobile phones that could answer your questions, and people criticized these predictions as unrealistic. Fast forward a decade — Google has demonstrated self-driving cars, and people are indeed asking questions of their Android phones. It’s easy to shrug our collective shoulders as if these technologies have always been around, but we’re really on a remarkable trajectory of quickening innovation, and Google is at the forefront of much of this development.
THIS IS SOОО TRUE!!!
by Vladislav
Congratulations Kurzweil!
by Nathaniel
…you mean…Congratulations Google!
by neitzele
Congrats!
by rankya
Google already has the technology at hand, because they have minds who see what others can’t, and Ray Kurzweil is an addition which money cannot buy. Can’t wait to see innovations related to internet and broader AI use to rid the noise we have to search through
by Brett
Hilarious all the people that say that Ray Kurzweil “knows nothing” about the human brain or biology. His latest book is all about the human brain and emulating it in software, just as they did in developing their voice recognition software. Books: try reading them sometime. Apparently all the nay-sayers here are smarter than the guys at Google! I can’t wait to see what great technological leaps they create! o.O
by Aaron Wright
Congrats to Mr. Kurzweil! With their powers combined, I’m sure they will do some really cool things in the field of AI.
by dani pettas
Awesome!!!
by Matthew
Awesome. I want AI merged with my brain. Super Intelligence anyone? Ray is an inspiration. Hit the pedal to the floor and accelerate technological breakthroughs!
by Whittaker
I hate to sound cliched, but I want to say this: “One small step of a man and a company, one giant leap for the mankind (and AI-kind). Yay!
by Thierry
a reaction (in french) : Google and Singularity, a logic mariage
by Chrispium
Wohoo, you rock!
Congratulations mr. Kurzweil
by Michael
That’s so awesome. Perfect match.
I wonder if he will be a part of google x labs at all.
by Atmic
This is absolutely fantastic — couldn’t have picked a better candidate for such a powerful position. The future is bright!
by Richard
Congratulations, Ray. Have a good job :-)
by Jay
Great team up. I hope many awesome technological breakthroughs will arise from this.
by Jason Silva fanboy
Maybe we’ll make it by next friday after all …
by David
Congratulations Ray!
by Jason Adair
Woohoo! What a way to add a catalyst to exponential technological advancement!
by KellyCoinGuy
Does this mean Ray has resigned his position at MIT? Or at his other companies?
by JC
If they give him a 10 billion dollar budget and one thousand Google engineers then the time to the Singularity may much reduced. Say from 30 years to 15. This is Ray’s best chance at making it to there. I hope he does!
by renzo canepari
I don’t even think it would take that much money.
by melajara
Hip hip hooRay!
Hopefully this news will convince my mother that Ray is no crackpot after all, LOL!
Seriously, the combination of Ray’s very ambitious views on what is about to come and the cash and sheer power of Google is making me drooling!
Big move Ray, and now make (y)our dreams come true :-)
by OsirisX
Monumental! Wonderful. Can’t wait to see the fruits of this partnership.
by alan silverstein
A perfect marriage – Google chumps should worship the ground you walk on – and compensate you with 50% ownership of their stock; really – Director of Engineering? come on – how about CTO or innovation evangelist. Can’t wait, good luck, and may your creativity be exponential :-)
by curt
…just curious…you were 14 in 1962..i find it hard to believe that you had a computer available to you to program then. just what language were you programming in?
by Bob
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Neivqp2K4
by MvB
It will be interesting to hear what the critics have to say, now that, apparently, one of the most successful companies on earth openly deems Ray’s visions feasible. I’m curious if we will hear the word “crackpot” spoken so often now.
by Fen
Well – I don’t know if Ray being hired by Google specifically means that A) Google finds Ray’s vision (by this I figure you mean Singularity) feasible, or B) That Google wants to be at the forefront of said vision – but it does say that Google doesn’t think Ray is a crackpot. From reading his last book, I figure this has something to do with his new AI model that he mentions he is currently working on – this has probably been in the works for a while and everything is just finalizing now.
Mostly, I’m just really curious to see if this new model is going to work out as well as Ray (and I, for that matter) hope.
by pb
WELCOME Ray !!! it is wonderful to think of Google investing so to speak
in this brilliant man. What a great thing. Hallelujah and always know that the future can be great
by Ab Acaxi
Go Ray, Go!
by eldras
Google stock will jump on this. No surprise it;s announced at the w/e.
If Ray can drive strong A.I. google can cut poverty and suffering world- wide.
Looks like he has come in with an idea after studying reverse engineering the brain?
by Brandon Johnson
Kurzweil is a technological visionary and all of his books have inspired me in many ways. I see now that Google’s ecosystem is going to become The Singularity.
by mjw2000@gmail.com
Amazing news! Maybe google stock will go up exponentially! Hope the Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence newsletter doesn’t get folded into the robotic Google News.
by Danny
The great news, Well done that man!
by Rashid Mostafa
Hope you enjoy you new job.
by Jack
This is the beginning of Skynet.
by Brandon Johnson
That is awesome!
by joe
Here Ray appears on TedTalk, speaking about the acceleration of technology:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ray_kurzweil_on_how_technology_will_transform_us.html
by joe
I believe Ray was the guest on The Colbert Report in April 2012:
http://www.watchseries-online.eu/2011/04/the-colbert-report-ray-kurzweil.html
by Ashish Kadam
Congratulations! This team up is surely going to produce some amazing stuff! :)
by Ian
Very interesting news!
by Jamesti
Great news ! this is awesome.
by JoukoSalonen
nanosyntax+pattern recognition+signal processing?
by Delatorre
Personally would have been more enthusiastic if you went to work with Microsoft. Could you please comment on why you would choose to work with Google over Microsoft? I’m still a big fan of yours Ray, and look forward to hearing your thoughts about Microsoft.
by Matthew J Price
Seriously? Name one single good reason to choose the sinking fossil that is Microsoft with no AI research to speak of, over Google?
by Dr. X
MS are among leaders in AI field of research… Things like speech recognition, machine translation, neural networks…
MS definitely occupy second place in the field, just slightly behind Google. And MS is well ahead of chasing pack. Companies like Yahoo/iFlyTek/Apple are well behind at the moment at least.
Anyhow Google is a leader. And probably is a best choice. But MS nevertheless is a major player in the AI research field.
by star0
I always liked that saying “the best way to predict the future is to invent it”; and I think that applies to Ray Kurzweil.
by eldras
that’s good star0 good to see u here
by Jeremy M.
Congratulations Mr. Kurzweil! I hope you endeavor to keep an open dialog with the public so improved AGI methods can be understood and appreciated by the public… instead of being feared as they generally seem to be these days.
by Don Yarosz
Yea, he probably is…. . LoL. Anyhow, Great news for us all, Ray! The human race got lucky today! Have fun. It is a good move and a smart company. It would be fun to join you to work on Education project ideas. Here are a few for the Early Care and Educaiton Community.: http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/31709279/integrating-interactive-theater-systems-preschools-play-areas I have lots of otheres. Feel free to reach out and say “hello!”. – Don
by Yeti
Well done that man!
by ProfessorZ
I’m totally buying Google stock as soon as the exchange opens Monday.
by Ann Ominous
I wonder how hard it was to predict the self driving car over 10 years after it had been demonstrated by Mercedez-Benz?
by KellyCoinGuy
Mercedez wasn’t the first to demonstrate it, there have been autonomous cars for decades, but they drove too slowly to be useful. Also the addition of the depth image has proved critical. This technology just needed the computational power Kurzweil predicted to become successful, and I believe it will.
by Mick
Religion — in all its forms is the same regurgitated crap. Don’t think for yourself, just do what the book says. Be a nice conforming tribe member and your chances of survival will increase. I’m not sure if it’s a meme or if it’s a survival instinct, but either way it gets bothersome when pushed upon people not wanting it.
Anyway, Ray working at Google: Can’t think of much better news than that. The guy is already my personal hero (much like some people feel about sports-games celebrities). We’ll get our AIs much sooner than the global mob realizes, then it gets fun: will they worship it? I’m guessing so. They’ll worship various AIs who can perform ‘miracles’ in terms of manipulating matter, healing, inventing etc. and who knows, the AIs may figure out the true nature of our reality.
Good times to come. Thanks Ray, and work hard man.. you have to make it to the singularity such that your mind is around forever!
by Ian Clarke
So, reading between the lines…
… free Google Glasses with each pre-order of Ray’s next book? :-)
by Gabriel
Heh — he said their would be AR glasses this decade, and it looks like it’s happening….I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted to help them make it a reality.
by Matt
Good for Ray. Instead of merely predicting the future he can actively shape it with Google’s resources at his whim. I sure hope to meet him one day.
by Tony Stender
Well two brains can putout more work than one even with speech alone serving as the communication tool. Add writing and we bind time and add all the other readers and writers to the pool of input and output streams. There a re a lot of bright minds at google, not to mention that those in charge have very open minds to boot. That should make the exponential component even higher.
I applaud you Ray Kurzweil for pursuing your goal with such devoted persistence. I am rooting for you and google to get this solved ASAP.
Considering what happened today in Connecticut, we need a lot of good news of some kind to balance the scales on the positive side.
by Jim Mooney
That’s the real question – can intelligence overcome the stupidity that has infected the nation before we all go over the cliff. (And I don’t mean fiscal cliff. There are much, much bigger ones out there.)
by Vincent Abry
Nice move Ray, good luck at Google and these are excellent news for all of us!
by David Garon
I think this is a very smart move by both Google and Ray. Look forward following the evolution of your collaboration.
by chris calip
Go google glasses! one step to reality!
by Mark McAndrew
Seeing where it’s going and making it happen are two very different things. But then again, someone has to make it happen. God speed, Messrs K, P & B.
The combined computational capacity of our species is already off the chart, yet only just beginning. This is going to be quite a ride…
*orbiting the event horizon*
by MrFriendly
Will he be implementing some of the ideas presented in his latest book?
by Mindey
Looks like a rational decision considering the long term interests of Kurzweil and Google. I look forward to your cooperation!
by jason wilczak
Hey need a guy to get your coffee or write an algorithm or two !? ;)
by McTruck
Nice move, Ray. I’ve thought for some time that the first companies to create strong AI will be either Apple or Google.
by Gabriel
You’d think after Watson, that he’d join IBM. I’m sure he has his reasons for choosing Google.
by GAUSS
Google is ultimately a more progressive company, IBM is still one of the conservative tech “old” tech giants. Both do amazing work, but Google is probably a better fit. They have a lot to gain from Kurzweil’s AI work, esp. in the context of uber-smart search engines.
A great move. Looking forward to what comes of this.
by Mr.X
@Gabriel: There was a nice essay by Ben Goertzel here on this site.
Here is another one (or is it the same):
http://hplusmagazine.com/2011/02/17/watson-supercharged-search-engine-or-prototype-robot-overlord/
by decadence
I’m 100% sure that Apple wont be the first company to create strong AI. My bet is on Google or IBM.
by Jay Bob
Great news!
by Phillfrog
Are you on the right the site?
by Stef
Noooo… he joined the dark side…
;-)