Renowned inventor, entrepreneur, author and futurist Ray Kurzweil announced that he has been hired by Google as director of engineering 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," Kurzweil wrote on his website. It was not clear from his announcement whether his employment with the search engine giant was a full-time job or on a consulting basis, or whether Kurzweil will be working at the Google headquarters in Mountain View or his longtime base in Massachusetts. Clearing the air over the speculations, Kurzweil in an email response to aTechCrunch query, said, "It is a full time position in Mountain View. The focus of the position is on new technology development, however I will be continuing my role as a thought leader through lectures, speaking with the press, and such initiatives as my recent book."
Kurzweil, who was described as "the restless genius" by The Wall Street Journal and "the ultimate thinking machine" by Forbes, is known for his early inventions of speech and text recognition software and for his views on technological singularity. He is recognized for his relentless efforts to advocate futurist and trans humanist movements. His forecasts of future advances in technology are highly valued in the tech world. Kurzweil's thoughts on how soon artificial intelligences can match humans have been controversial. He says human life span can be dramatically extended by 2050 with nanotechnology.
If you are not clear on what a futurist does, Wikipedia defines one as a "scientist whose speciality is to attempt to systematically predict the future, whether that of human society in particular or of life on earth in general."
Here is the full text of his appointment news published on his website:
"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."
