Computer scientist, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil – featured in this year's AI power index–As a leading Google researcher, he has predicted the trajectory of AI for decades and as co-founder of the Robotics Startup Bedist Imagination, he continues to shape both AI research and practical innovation. In 2024 he released The singularity is approachinga follow-up to the 2005 bestseller, predicting that AI will merge with human consciousness and enable medical breakthroughs that can overcome illness and even aging by the 2030s.
“Hollywood portrays AI as an alien invasion,” Kurzweil tells the observer. “I don't see it that way. AI is evolving from within us and reflects our values, knowledge and beliefs.” From machinery and machines that extend human strength to intelligent systems that extend cognition, Kurzweil sees AI as the next step in human evolution. Beyond Imagination recently raised $100 million in Series B funding to develop humanoid robots, but at Google, Kurzweil will impact AI strategies in natural language processing and machine learning. His predictions, once considered speculative, have been widely discussed in the lab and boardrooms.
What is one assumption about AI you think is wrong?
Hollywood portrays Eye as an alien invasion that comes to destroy us. I consider AI to be a survival rival. I don't see it that way. Artificial intelligence is evolving from within us and reflects our values, knowledge and beliefs. We create and blend technology from the beginning of time. Ever since we got the stick to reach higher branches, we have used tools to expand our reach both physically and mentally. Just as we built machinery machines to stretch muscles to build roads and bridges, we built intelligent machines to stretch our brains.
Merging with AI is the next step in human evolution. The boundary between the digital and physics worlds is already blurred. Think about how difficult it is to travel the world today without a smartphone. With our mobile phones, all human knowledge is at your fingertips. The amount of calculations that once fit into a building now fits in your pocket, quickly fits in your blood cells, and become much more powerful. This is how it blends with technology. AI enhances all abilities: intelligence, humor, creativity, compassion.
If you had to choose the moment last year when you thought “this would change everything” about AI, what was it?
26 years ago, in my book The age of spiritual machines, I predicted that AI would reach human-level intelligence by 2029. I was so worried that Stanford University held an international conference to evaluate my predictions. Hundreds of AI experts from around the world came in and 80% agreed that computers match human performance FinallyBut most people thought it would take 100 years.
A lot has happened since then. Today, the consensus among experts has fallen in line with my original predictions, and some say it will happen even sooner. So, while I'm not surprised by our progress, I can say I'm pleased with the progress AI has made over the past few years. We have recently reached a new level of computing power that allows AI to learn everything in every field.
What about AI development that keeps you on nights that most people don't talk about?
I'm not afraid to keep me in the evening. I'm excited. AI allows for large-scale biological simulations that allow you to quickly test billions of possible molecular sequences to find the most suitable drug. This is how Moderna found the Covid-19 vaccine in two days. The same approach is used to find treatments for diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease. As computing power grows exponentially, it simulates organelles, cells, tissues, organs and ultimately the whole body. Instead of dangerous, expensive and slow clinical trials, we will simulate trials digitally. By 2032, an AI-driven medical breakthrough will lead us to lifelong escape speeds.
Now, when you live through the year, you will run out of your longevity year. However, if you're passionate about healthcare and nutrition, we estimate that we'll return four months into today's year from a scientific breakthrough. In other words, you will only lose about 8 months of longevity in a year. However, when applying AI to medicine, it is exponentially progressing, so living throughout the year by about 2032 goes back a year from scientific advances. And beyond that point, you will return in time, as much as your health is concerned, as you will be back in time, as you will be back every year.
