Ray Kurzweil Hired by Google as Director of Engineering
In what is probably the best free agent pickup in computing in a very, very long time, Google has hired Ray Kurzweil as Director of Engineering. Yes, that Ray Kurzweil, the inventor and futurist who came up with all that synthesizer technology and regularly prognosticates on the technological innovations of tomorrow.
His primary tasks at Google will involve machine learning and language processing, which taps into some of Google’s existing projects, which Kurzweil says he predicted pre-millenium.
Kurzweil, the newest Googler
“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,” his website quoted him as saying. “Fast forward a decade — Google has demonstrated self-driving cars, and people are indeed asking questions of their Android phones.“ Kurzweil further stated that he believes Google is at the forefront of these innovations and many more.
Google HQ
“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,” he said. Kurzweil’s first day at Google will be Monday, December 17th.
His primary tasks at Google will involve machine learning and language processing, which taps into some of Google’s existing projects, which Kurzweil says he predicted pre-millenium.
Kurzweil, the newest Googler
“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,” his website quoted him as saying. “Fast forward a decade — Google has demonstrated self-driving cars, and people are indeed asking questions of their Android phones.“ Kurzweil further stated that he believes Google is at the forefront of these innovations and many more.
Google HQ
“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,” he said. Kurzweil’s first day at Google will be Monday, December 17th.
