Did Google Hire Ray Kurzweil to Produce Skynet?

Ray Kurzweil, renowned futurist, artificial intelligence expert, and vitamin lover, has been hired to become Google's director of engineering. The announcement came, of all places, via Kurzweil's own blog, which hints at just how big Kurzweil's profile is. But while Kurzweil is obviously much more than a famous name, why did Google, whose entire company was built on the backs of young engineers, pick him to lead their engineering department?

Why, to create sentient computers, of course. Google moved on from trying to perfect web algorithms towards developing systems that actually know how you think. Currently, that means Google has turned its impressive intelligence-gathering skills first developed for delivering personalized ads (still the bulk of the Goog's business) into personalized search results and cross-platform enhancements that help Google customize your experience when using any one of its products. While that already seems kinda Big Brother-ish, the next step is to move beyond just tracking email keywords and search histories, and developing systems that can actually think like and, more crazily, for you.

Kurzweil hinted as much in the announcement, saying/writing (quotation marks are from the original):

“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.”

It's an oversimplification, but in my chats with futurists over the years, I feel there are two ways of looking at our enhanced, AI-assisted future. First is the fatalistic view: While he may not qualify himself, Kevin Warwick discussed with me last year how plenty of people are going to augment themselves in the future because it's what they'll have to do to keep up, and anyone who doesn't will be left behind. On the other hand are Warwick himself and especially Kurzweil, who do believe that the singularity will open up a new golden age of mankind.

Now, even discussing the singularity and computer augmentation still sounds trippy as hell to most people, but it's closer than we think. Plus, there's the classic argument that our smartphones are already augmenting us, even if they're not physically attached. Google then is well-positioned to think in those terms–we've got Google glasses, so why not an implantable Android device in a few years?–but pulling in a famously future-forward mind like Kurzweil may help sell those ideas (not to mention the fact that he's also brilliant engineer).

Google made its bones off of machine intelligence, and it's firmly stuck in that realm. It's often compared to Apple, but aside from their mobile battle, the two aren't as comparable as they first appear. Apple sells a well-packaged and frustration-free ecosystem of gadgets, while Google delivers systems that are simply smarter than anything else. That's the whole point of Android just as much as it is Google's self-driving car; the company wants to get as many people using as many intelligent systems as it can, because the two sides feed the other's development cycle. In other words, the data Google collects from millions of users is just as useful in making its systems smarter as its self-driving car is in demonstrating to people that computers can increasingly do complex tasks for us.

As such, it seems that Google wants to be the company that can bring forth–and profit off of–the singularity, and there's no better man to get them there than Kurzweil, who believes that the singularity will come in this lifetime (notwithstanding the fact that he plans to live forever).

What's the end result? Well, in plain terms, my guess is that in whatever sit-down chat Kurzweil and Google had, one of the main topics of discussion was developing a machine that's self-aware. Without getting into all of the mind-melting possibilities that true AI could bring forth, let's just say that it offers a user experience that's both better than anything ever created (sorry Siri) and immensely popular.

Truly, there's no more killer app than one that can make the vast majority of computing tasks we do today totally obsolete. Why waste time typing into Google, scrolling through YouTube videos, and curating relevant blog posts when you could have an e-butler do all if it for you at a simple request? And what if that guy was mounted inside your brain? Of course, another scenario is that when Google/Kurzweil flips the switch on their self-aware computer, it realizes humans are leeches and turns into Skynet. Hopefully that won't happen, but in either case, Google's surprise hire of Kurzweil suggests one thing: Google believes the singularity is legitimately coming.

@derektmead