Ray Kurzweil joins Google
kurzweilai.net
Ray Kurzweil joins Google
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Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google
#2Can anyone shed some light on what 'Director of Engineering' might mean at Google? It sounds rather unassuming for a person of his stature.
Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google
#3I wonder if his political/visionary/famous aspects played a positive, negative, or neutral role in the hire.
Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google
#4Google continues its move towards the ad-driven singularity.
Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google
#5[deleted]
Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google
#6 I think he's eying their massive server farm as a spot to park his brain. He just called shotgun for the Singularity.
Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google
#7Can anyone shed some light on what 'Director of Engineering' might mean at Google? It sounds rather unassuming for a person of his stature.
Director is generally the management level just below VP.
I don't know the specifics of this situation though, so take it with a grain of salt. reply
Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google
#8Can anyone shed some light on what 'Director of Engineering' might mean at Google? It sounds rather unassuming for a person of his stature.
I think there is a Director of Engineering at every Google office (or even multiple, like each for a group of product)? Otherwise he would be listed as "Senior Vice President, Engineering". Minimally, he's going to be the manager of the managers of some related teams.
Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google
#9I wonder if this will be a wake up call for some of the people who think his predictions of super-human AI are a joke.
I mean even if you don't believe in the Singularity, you must believe in Google, right?
Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google
#10Can anyone shed some light on what 'Director of Engineering' might mean at Google? It sounds rather unassuming for a person of his stature.
For a long time it was the highest grade you could be hired in as since Google didn't feel like the title "Vice President" in Google meant the same thing as other places. I know VP's they gave offers to, who turned down the offer on the basis of having to take the title of director. At one time you had a limited amount of time post hire to 'prove yourself' or be managed out of the organization.
I found the hire curious from the standpoint that Kurzweil's tendency to handwave rather than retreat to data has historically been a red flag in the hiring process at Google. This tended to unfairly penalize theorists over experimentalists at Google. One wonders if they've changed.
I remember him giving a tech talk and talking about how many computers you'd need to simulate a brain and how nobody would put that together for years yet, and chuckling knowingly :-).