Damien Willis

Ray Kurzweil works for Google.

I first became aware of Kurzweil about six or seven years ago when I saw the documentary, “Transcendent Man.” It’s a pretty straight-forward documentary about a very, very strange man. Kurzweil is an award-winning scientist and engineer, and probably one of the leading thinkers at the crossroads of technology, philosophy and human physiology.

The name Kurzweil, in modern times, has become synonymous with the idea of technological singularity, or “the singularity.” The singularity, according to Wikipedia, is the idea that “artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization.” In simpler terms, some believe that computers and technology will eventually become smart enough to program themselves — and humanity will lose all control of them.

It’s a Frankenstein’s monster scenario, and Kurzweil believes that — as stated in the title of his bestselling 2005 book — “The Singularity is Near.” (In 2012, it was turned into a very odd documentary/feature film, “The Singularity is Near,” which you can view for free on YouTube.)

Honestly, it seems a little crazy. But it also doesn’t seem entirely impossible. Kurzweil is far from the only one concerned about artificial intelligence running amok — and possibly annihilating the human race. As I wrote in January, physicist Stephen Hawking, entrepreneur Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak have expressed concern. They recently signed an open letter warning that “a military AI arms race is a bad idea.” The letter was also endorsed by MIT professor Noam Chomsky and Demis Hassabis, the head of AI at Google.

But I digress. This is not about killer robots, per se. It’s about Kurzweil, and the work he’s doing for Google. So, as tempted as I am to go into his strange plan for human immortality — and the diet he spends “a few thousand dollars per day” on, which he believes will help him live forever — I won’t. I’ll move on.

If you use Gmail, you might have noticed a feature called “Smart Reply,” which was rolled out some time back. As far as I can tell, it is currently only being used in the mobile app. It is basically an automatic reply feature which gives you a few options for short responses that can be sent with a single tap.

For instance, if someone sends you an email that says, “Did you manage to print the document?” Gmail will give you three options to respond with one touch. Those might be, “Yes, I did,” “Yes, it’s done,” or “No, I didn’t.”

This is what Kurzweil is doing. And, believe it or not, something so basic is actually ridiculously complicated. It has everything to do with how computers “understand” the way we use language and how our brains process information.

Larry Page, Google’s co-founder, personally hired Kurzweil in 2012. Page and Kurzweil reportedly agreed on a one-sentence job description for the eccentric scientist: “to bring natural language understanding to Google.”

Kurzweil has suggested that the science that is beginning to drive platforms like Smart Reply, Google Translate and — one must assume — Google Home, is the same concept that “makes the (human brain’s) neocortex work.”

“My consistent prediction, going back a couple of decades, has been that in 2029 computers will understand language at human levels,” he told Wired Magazine in August.

Let me be clear: Kurzweil’s not talking about speech recognition. He’s talking about linguistic comprehension — the thought processes that occur with language. If Kurzweil is correct in his prediction, the ramifications could alter the course of technology in ways most of us have never pondered. In ways that could bring us much, much closer to “the singularity.”

Damien Willis is a columnist for Pulse, writing primarily about entertainment and pop culture. He may be reached at damienwillis@gmail.com or @damienwillis on Twitter.