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Ray Kurzweil joins Google

kurzweilai.net

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Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#21

Post by vecinu »

GuiA wrote: post #11

Saw him give a talk promoting his latest book last month, was heavily disappointed. Ideas are presented in a way to fit nicely together, but ultimately lack any depth or critical insights. I recall someone calling it "creationism for people with an IQ over 140"; it's a fair description. It's a shame, he's brought many great contributions to our field, but I fear he has jumped the shark a while ago. Maybe going to Goo…

I tend to feel the same way about him and the state of his life at the moment.

I am very grateful for the inventions he brought forth and his work on AI but I think his current goals in life are unreasonable and of course, related to the death of his father.

As much as he doesn't want to be human anymore, his entire goal in life relies on the human condition...to reconnect with his father and transgress life in its current form.

I think he could do so much more at the moment if, like you said, he would focus on problems that can be solved as soon as possible and demonstrate a use of his solution.

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#22

Post by Raphael »

nostrademons wrote: post #19
waterlesscloud wrote: post #15

It's seemed pretty clear to me for some time that Google's real mission is AI/singularity oriented and everything else is just a step along that road. It may not be what the day-to-day view is in the trenches, but it seems like the high level plan. A hire like this one certainly reinforces that perception. I don't know if it's truly possible to accomplish, but it's fascinating to see a major company taking steps in t…

"Organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." If you take that to the limit, the logical consequence is some sort of planet-wise consciousness that can instantly pull up any of humanity's collective knowledge at a moment's notice.

Doesn't it already do that?

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#23

Post by ChuckMcM »

ilaksh wrote: post #18
ChuckMcM wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 curio…

His tendency to handwave rather than retreat to data? What the heck are you talking about? Have you seen how many graphs he puts in his presentations? You think he's a theorist rather than an experimentalist? How can you possibly get that idea with all of his game-changing inventions?

So he gave a tech-talk at Google, around 2008, and yes he had lots of graphs and such but during the Q&A session he kept retreating into generalized ideas rather than data. I recall the question about how he came up with his numbers for machines to hold a consciousness as one such exchange.

The impression I certainly got was that his approach is to theorize about something, then design experiments to test out his theory. As opposed to running a bunch of experiments and then figuring out a theory that would explain the collected data.

That said, I've got mad respect for his work and have enjoyed his talks and writings. Your comment though suggests you think 'theorist' is a negative in some connotation? Why is that?

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#24

Post by nostrademons »

Raphael wrote: post #22
nostrademons wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." If you take that to the limit, the logical consequence is some sort of planet-wise consciousness that can instantly pull up any of humanity's collective knowledge at a moment's notice.

Doesn't it already do that?

Google employees tend to be harsher on our current achievements than the general public. :-)

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#25

Post by Alex3917 »

GuiA wrote: post #11

Saw him give a talk promoting his latest book last month, was heavily disappointed. Ideas are presented in a way to fit nicely together, but ultimately lack any depth or critical insights. I recall someone calling it "creationism for people with an IQ over 140"; it's a fair description. It's a shame, he's brought many great contributions to our field, but I fear he has jumped the shark a while ago. Maybe going to Goo…

"Ideas are presented in a way to fit nicely together, but ultimately lack any depth or critical insights."

While are a number of obvious problems with the theory, it's still an invaluable idea. Even if 2042 doesn't pan it, Kurzweil has still provided an enormously powerful tool to help understand the world around us. (Well, technically he didn't invent the idea, but he was the one who did most of the work aggregating the data.)

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#26

Post by michaelochurch »

I wonder how the blind allocation process will treat him. His domain expertise is AI, but he didn't do any of that At Google, which means it doesn't exist. So is he going to have to spend 18 months maintaining a legacy ad-targeting product while the 26-year-old Staff SWE next to him works on its replacement? How is he going to handle that?

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#27

Post by [deleted] »

michaelochurch wrote: post #26

I wonder how the blind allocation process will treat him. His domain expertise is AI, but he didn't do any of that At Google, which means it doesn't exist. So is he going to have to spend 18 months maintaining a legacy ad-targeting product while the 26-year-old Staff SWE next to him works on its replacement? How is he going to handle that?

[deleted]

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#28

Post by dumitrue »

michaelochurch wrote: post #26

I wonder how the blind allocation process will treat him. His domain expertise is AI, but he didn't do any of that At Google, which means it doesn't exist. So is he going to have to spend 18 months maintaining a legacy ad-targeting product while the 26-year-old Staff SWE next to him works on its replacement? How is he going to handle that?

Why would you ever think that he is being blindly allocated to the position of Director of Engineering? In that position, he'll pretty much be in control of his own destiny at Google.

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#29

Post by pratikjhaveri »

michaelochurch wrote: post #26

I wonder how the blind allocation process will treat him. His domain expertise is AI, but he didn't do any of that At Google, which means it doesn't exist. So is he going to have to spend 18 months maintaining a legacy ad-targeting product while the 26-year-old Staff SWE next to him works on its replacement? How is he going to handle that?

Stop trolling! I'm not even an ex-Googler and know about your constant complaints. Move on! Life's too short buddy.

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#30

Post by Devilboy »

ilaksh wrote: post #9

I 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?

2029: Although computers routinely pass the Turing Test, controversy still persists over whether machines are as intelligent as humans in all areas.

-- The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999)

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