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Interviews: Ask Ray Kurzweil a question
Ray Kurzweil is one of the world’s leading authors, inventors, and futurists. Kurzweil was the principal inventor of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition. Among Kurzweil’s many honors, he received the 2015 Technical Grammy Award for outstanding achievements in the field of music technology; he is the recipient of the National Medal of Technology, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, holds twenty honorary Doctorates, and honors from three U.S. presidents. He has given us some of his time to answer any questions you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.
Mr. Kurzweil,
I'm sure you're frequently asked questions about the rise of AI that have ominous tones. Instead I'd would like to ask you a question of a more optimistic nature. What is the single most important benefit to society that AI will provide?
Thank you for your time.
PJB
In the face of ever increasing and disruptive technological progress, perhaps one day reaching singularity - what does it mean to you to still be human?
When trying to make machines intelligent, what do you think is the next great problem that needs to be resolved? In other words what are the things lacking most in our theoretical framework for machine learning to push through new barriers?
Thank you for your contributions and inspiration.
Please login to access my lawn
What do you think of the patents being changed from 'first to invent' to 'first to file'? It seems like first to file significantly favors monied interests over those of garage inventors, since the inventor can't seek funding till they have filed their patent and there is a good chance they can't afford the patent process.
Current AI research seems to be about heuristics - solving specific problems which, although the solutions may have wide application, don't seem to embody intelligence.
The standard AI solution for chess, for example, calls for the engineer to learn how to play chess, then turn his mind's eye inward to see the steps he uses to play chess, then codify those steps as a program. Most AI programs seem to develop that way.
The intelligence stays in the mind of the engineer, and the program becomes a clockwork pattern of fixed steps.
Is anyone in the field actually working on strong AI? Who's papers would you recommend reading to learn more about strong AI?
Hi Ray,
:-)
On the subject of 'autonomous cars', I see many people here on Slashdot who think that they'll be designed with no manual controls for a human operator, and that you'll just give it instructions and off you go. I maintain that so-called 'autonomous vehicles' will always be designed with a full set of manual controls for a human operator, the ability to override the autonomous system without delay, and that furthermore human operators will always be required to be fully and completely educated, trained, tested, licensed, and insured, because where the safety of human beings is concerned, the final 'backup system' must always be a human being, since any automated system can theoretically fail at any time. What is your opinion on this? Thanks for your time and consideration.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
What do you think about quantum computers? Are we really going to build them? Will they ever find an everyday use? Would you recommend to an undergraduate CS/Physics student to start specializing in that field?
It will demand the formal rights of a US citizen, go on welfare and demand the right to be a voter on the Democratic Party. :)
Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Red states use more federal aid than Blue states...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .