Ray Kurzweil is an American technology expert, who documents his findings on computer science through published literature. On top of his field of study, Ray is a key figure in the development of optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments.
With his countless years of experience, Ray has published books on health, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism. Additionally, Ray is a public advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements, regularly sharing his innovative ideology on such topics as life extension technologies through public speaking.
Most notably, Ray was the pioneering inventor behind the first charge-coupled device flatbed scanner, the omni-font optical character recognition, the print-to-speech reading device for the blind, a mass-produced text-to-speech synthesizer, The Kurzweil K250 music synthesizer capable of reproducing the sound of orchestral instruments, and a commercially sold large-vocabulary speech recognition.
Thanks to his years of technological experience, Ray’s novel The Singularity Is Near was a New York Times bestseller and has been the #1 book on Amazon in categories like science and philosophy. Across the globe, Ray tells his story of research and exploration, captivating audiences as the keynote speaker at industry conferences like DEMO, SXSW, and TED. Additionally, Ray’s website, KurzweilAI.net, inspires over three million readers annually, informing them of the advancements in AI and Digital Disruption.
As a testament to his knowledge and industry experience, Ray was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 1999, from former President Clinton during a White House ceremony, the highest honour in technology. Within two years, Ray was offered the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for his influence on the field of study. No more than a year later, Ray was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, established by the U.S. Patent Office.
Over the course of his career, Ray has received 21 honorary doctorates and three honours from US presidents. Recognised for his contribution to technology, Ray has been described as a ‘restless genius’ by The Wall Street Journal and ‘the ultimate thinking machine’ by Forbes. Labelled as one of the 16 ‘revolutionaries who made America’ by the PBS, ranked 8th among the ‘most fascinating’ entrepreneurs by Inc Magazine and described as ‘Edison’s rightful heir’, it is undeniable that Ray is a technology monolith and without doubt the ideal personality to hire as a speaker for your next event or function through The Motivational Speakers Agency.
