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Ray Kurzweil joins Google

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Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#51

Post by michaelochurch »

dumitrue wrote: post #28
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.

When I was there, Directors were still above the Real Googler Line, but it may have moved up in the time since then. Also, he lives in Massachusetts, which means he'll only get the work that MTV doesn't want (unless he moves). Finally, with his visibility, he's going to get a lot of prank Perf and his manager is going to have a hard time promoting him because of that.

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#52

Post by msbarnett »

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?

> 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?

The ability to present something in graph form does not mean that it isn't handwavy bafflegab rather than data.

One need look no further than his absurd joke of a "paradigm shifts"/"countdown to the singularity" graph.

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#53

Post by brandall10 »

kanzure wrote: post #47
brandall10 wrote: post #43

I'm somewhat surprised there are comments debating what use he could be to Google or what interest they might have in him - Google is one of the primary backers of Singularity University. They already have a working relationship. Now he's an employee. Don't get how this could be a stretch. Singularity U as far as I understand is not really there so people can more quickly get to the point of uploading their brain to…

> They already have a working relationship. Now he's an employee. Don't get how this could be a stretch. Maybe because of his role at Google, "Director of Engineering". That's not a good description of what Singularity University offers their customers. They do maybe one or two field trips to BioCurious and call it quits. Also, why is Singularity University managing TedxAustin? That was a bizarre email to see.

Really? Their stated goal is: "assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges."

Why would this not in alignment w/ Google's aim for such a position? Why would they not want a strategist they believe who could direct their engineering staff in this manner?

The people who attend the university are CEOs, CTOs... Directors of Engineering, etc. It's not for fringe kooks to congregate in celebration of the upcoming nerd rapture. Not at $25k/10 weeks it ain't.

I get that he's a polarizing figure. But there are some very powerful people in this world who believes the man can walk on water.

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#54

Post by kanzure »

brandall10 wrote: post #53
kanzure wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They already have a working relationship. Now he's an employee. Don't get how this could be a stretch. Maybe because of his role at Google, "Director of Engineering". That's not a good description of what Singularity University offers their customers. They do maybe one or two field trips to BioCurious and call it quits. Also, why is Singularity University managing TedxAustin? That was a bizarre email to see.

Really? Their stated goal is: "assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges." Why would this not in alignment w/ Google's aim for such a position? Why would they not want a strategist they believe who could direct their engineering staff in t…

> Why would this not in alignment w/ Google's aim for such a position?

Singularity University helps you meet people who can help you facilitate engineering feats, in the sense that more money helps you facilitate engineering feats. That's okay in my book.

But, you're not going to end up with a working knowledge of mechanical engineering or computational neuroscience by hanging out at the Singularity University lectures.

People are surprised about at how far "Director of Engineering" can skew in that direction, they aren't surprised that Google is interested in the future.

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#55

Post by rpm4321 »

cschmidt wrote: post #42
cs702 wrote: post #39

Thanks in part to the popularity of his books, movie, and speeches, Kurzweil now knows pretty much every AI researcher in the planet, and we can safely assume he's aware of even very obscure research projects in the field, both inside and outside academia. Joining Google gives him ready access to data sets of almost unimaginable size, as well as unparalleled infrastructure and skills for handling such large data sets…

I just can't see Kurzweil being in the same league as Peter Norvig. Sure, he did some interesting work a long time ago, before he got weird. I can't see this working out well for Google, unless they just want a famous figurehead.

I'm reposting this comment I made a couple of months ago. He's no John McCarthy, but he was a true pioneer in the commercial applications of AI:

==================================

I don't think that's a very fair assessment of Kurzweil's role in technology.

He was on the ground, getting his hands dirty with the first commercial applications of AI. He made quite a bit of money selling his various companies and technologies, and was awarded the presidential Medal of Technology from Clinton.

As I was growing up, there was a series of "Oh wow!" moments I had, associated with computers and the seemingly sci-fi things they were now capable of.

"Oh wow, computers can read printed documents and recognize the characters!"

"Oh wow, computers can read written text aloud!"

"Oh wow, computers can recognize speech!"

"Oh wow, computer synthesizers can sound just like pianos now!"

I didn't realize until much later that Kurzweil was heavily involved with all of those breakthroughs.

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#56

Post by nealabq »

What's Kurzweil's motive?

He's a visionary who can deliver a finished product. I think he must have some pretty specific ideas, and he wants to partner with Google.

A few guesses:

- New interfaces to replace keyboard/mouse/touch. Voice, gesture, face, brainwaves. Sign language with humming, blinking, and pupil pointing. Works with tablets, TVs, wearables, cars, buildings, ATMs, etc.

- SuperPets (r) that can pass the Turing test. And do the shopping.

- Surgically implanted Bluetooth. (It could literally be a tooth!)

- Hover skateboards.

- The Matrix. (Or the 13th Floor, which was a better movie in my not-so humble opinion.)

I don't think it'll have to do with life-extension though. That's just too crazy far out-there.

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#57

Post by freshhawk »

gruseom wrote: post #41
jfb wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's faith-based handwaving bafflegab. So, yes, only without the intellectual credibility.

The Rapture for nerds, as Ken MacLeod delightfully put it.

That's my favourite, I've also seen Kurzweil called DeepakChopra++ which I like as well.

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#58

Post by freshhawk »

brandall10 wrote: post #53
kanzure wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They already have a working relationship. Now he's an employee. Don't get how this could be a stretch. Maybe because of his role at Google, "Director of Engineering". That's not a good description of what Singularity University offers their customers. They do maybe one or two field trips to BioCurious and call it quits. Also, why is Singularity University managing TedxAustin? That was a bizarre email to see.

Really? Their stated goal is: "assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges." Why would this not in alignment w/ Google's aim for such a position? Why would they not want a strategist they believe who could direct their engineering staff in t…

> The people who attend the university are CEOs, CTOs... Directors of Engineering, etc. It's not for fringe kooks

A much larger percentage of CEOs, CTOs, D of E's depend on psychics and astrologers. So that helps define the strength of the "other powerful people follow him" defense.

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#59

Post by eksabajt »

rpm4321 wrote: post #44
6ren wrote: post #12

It's as if you took a lot of very good food and some dog excrement and blended it all up so that you can't possibly figure out what's good or bad. http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/douglas-r-hof... I see what DRF means, and The Singularity is Near did seem mostly a perfunctory literature review, with important issues not discussed, just skimmed over. (For example, he doesn't discussed the causes of accel…

DRH?

Douglas Richard Hofstadter

Re: Ray Kurzweil joins Google

#60

Post by kanzure »

nealabq wrote: post #56

What's Kurzweil's motive? He's a visionary who can deliver a finished product. I think he must have some pretty specific ideas, and he wants to partner with Google. A few guesses: - New interfaces to replace keyboard/mouse/touch. Voice, gesture, face, brainwaves. Sign language with humming, blinking, and pupil pointing. Works with tablets, TVs, wearables, cars, buildings, ATMs, etc. - SuperPets (r) that can pass the…

> - New interfaces to replace keyboard/mouse/touch. Voice, gesture, face, brainwaves.

Unfortunately, it turns out you can only get a limited number of bits out by looking at brainwaves (EEG). Gesture is much higher bandwidth, and keyboards seem to be the highest.

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