Google's AI visionary says we'll 'expand intelligence a millionfold by 2045' thanks to nanobots, the tech will resurrect the dead, and we're all going to live forever
AI is undoubtedly the biggest technology topic of the last decade, with mind-bogglingly vast resources from companies including Google, OpenAI and Microsoft being poured into the field. Despite that the results so far are somewhat mixed. Google's AI answers are often just straight-up dumb (and incidentally are behind a 50% increase in the company's greenhouse gas emissions over the last five years), AI imagery and videos are filled with obvious errors, and the chatbots… well, they're a bit better, but they're still chatbots.
One man, however, both predicted this level of interest and certain elements of how AI is developing. The Guardian has a new interview with Ray Kurzweil, a futurist and computer scientist best-known for his 2005 book The Singularity is Near, with the «Singularity» being the melding of human consciousness and AI. Kurzweil is an authority on AI, and his current job title is remarkable: he is «principal researcher and AI visionary» at Google.
The Singularity is Near predicted that AI would reach the level of human intelligence by 2029, while the great merging of our brains with AI will occur around 2045. Now he's back with a follow-up called The Singularity is Nearer, a title which doesn't need much explanation. Strap yourself in for a dose of what some might call techno-futurism, while others may prefer the term dystopian madness.
Kurzweil stands by his 2005 predictions, and reckons 2029 remains an accurate date for both «human-level intelligence and for artificial general intelligence(AGI)–which is a little bit different. Human-level intelligence generally means AI that has reached the ability of the most skilled humans in a particular domain and by 2029 that will be achieved in most respects.» He reckons there may be a few years beyond this where AI can't surpass «the top humans in a few key skills like writing Oscar-winning screenplays or generating deep new philosophical insights,» but eventually «it will.»
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