I’ve been a big fan of Ray Kurzweil ever since I read The Singularity is Near. Kurzweil is controversial and some scientists dispute his conclusions but he is by no means some crackpot spouting nonsense. He has a proven track record as a scientist and inventor with significant work in OCR, speech synthesis, and musical keyboards. In 1999 President Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, America’s highest technology award.
Recently, Kurzweil went to work for Google, the first time he has worked at a company that he didn’t found. Forbes has a nice interview with him in which he talks about his work at Google, why he accepted the job, and what he hopes to accomplish. Whatever your views on the singularity, I think you’ll enjoy this interview.