Who is Ray Kurzweil, the futurist predicting human-machine merger
Ray Kurzweil is a legendary inventor and futurist who's been making waves for decades with his ideas about artificial intelligence.
He popularized the "Singularity"—the moment when humans and machines basically become one, and wrote influential books about it.
He has predicted a future "Singularity" and in his 2024 book he renewed that vision.
Early life and education
Kurzweil grew up in Queens, New York, and graduated from MIT in computer science and literature.
He launched companies behind game-changing tech like optical character recognition (OCR) and built reading machines for the blind that integrated text-to-speech—technology initially developed at other institutions, and later he produced text-to-speech products.
Career highlights and major achievements
Even before today's generative AI boom, Kurzweil was talking about a future where technology blurs the line between people and machines.
He is a Principal Researcher and AI Visionary at Google and is still shaping how we think about AI.
Along the way, he's picked up major awards—including the National Medal of Technology—and even built software that could compose music as a teen.