Brian McBride
Former Chairman of ASOS and former CEO of Amazon UK. Independent Non-executive Chair at Trainline
Ray Kurzweil
Preeminent Technology Futurist and Multiple Award-Winning Inventor; Co-Founder and Chancellor of Singularity University; Director of Engineering, Google
Few inventors have changed society as profoundly and as diversely as futurist speaker Ray Kurzweil. From optical character recognition to speech synthesis to music production, Kurzweil has consistently imagined the future, then created it. Events that celebrate innovation and the interplay of people and technology find an iconic keynote speaker in Ray Kurzweil.
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Ray Kurzweil biography
An Edison for our time, innovation speaker Ray Kurzweil is one of the world’s most pioneering inventors and futurists. As a keynote speaker, Ray Kurzweil offers stories and insights culled from a singularly impressive life.
Few innovators have singlehandedly changed the way we live as profoundly as Ray Kurzweil. PBS named him one of the “sixteen revolutionaries who made America.” The Wall Street Journal calls him a “restless genius,” and Forbes dubbed him “the ultimate thinking machine.” Inc. considers him the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison.”
When Kurzweil invented the world’s first flat-bed scanner, he had already established a reputation for pioneering achievement. Shortly after graduating from MIT, Kurzweil developed the first optical character recognition system capable of recognizing text in any font. To complement these two breakthroughs, Kurzweil then invented the first text-to-speech synthesizer. Together, these technologies enabled the Kurzweil Reading Machine, a revolutionary development for the vision-impaired whose legacy is felt to this day.
Along with good friend Stevie Wonder, Kurzweil then created the first music synthesizer capable of mimicking orchestral instruments. He later received a Grammy for his contributions to music, just one of his many honors. Kurzweil has received the National Medal of Technology and has been officially lauded by three US presidents. A member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, he holds more than 20 honorary doctorates.
He now serves as chancellor of Singularity University and as a director of engineering at Google, focusing on AI. Having done so much to shape our technological future, Kurzweil is naturally one of our most prescient analysts of it. His books include The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, and its sequel, The Singularity is Nearer. He also wrote a bestselling children’s novel, Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine.
Ray Kurzweil Speaking Videos
Ray Kurzweil on Elon Musk, Super AI, Immortality and The Singularity
Ray Kurzweil - The Future of Intelligence, Artificial and Natural
Ray Kurzweil Keynote Topics
Renowned author, inventor, and futurist, Ray Kurzweil, has a public track record of more than a quarter of a century of predictions with a stunning 86% accuracy rate, all based on his Law of Accelerating Returns which states that information technology is advancing exponentially — doubling in price-performance, capacity, and bandwidth every year. Since 1990, Kurzweil has laid out these predictions in a series of books: The Age of Intelligent Machines (1990), The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999), The Singularity is Near (2005), and How to Create a Mind(2012). And now, in his forthcoming book, The Singularity is Nearer (2020), he presents new data and a fresh look to the future as we approach the steep part of the exponential. By questioning old assumptions and applying exponential thinking Ray Kurzweil explains how we will rewrite the software of life, rebuild the world atom by atom, and reinvent our intelligence, to solve the world’s grandest challenges.
Kurzweil explains that accelerating information technology will lead us to completely overcome handicaps associated with sensory and physical disabilities and describes the extent to which we have already done that for many handicaps. He predicts that in about a quarter century, we will have millions of nanobots in our brains putting our brains on the Internet and providing high bandwidth communication directly with the brain, so vision will ultimately become obsolete. He can speak on a range of topics relating to blindness, disabilities, and assistive technologies in the 21st century. With his many assistive technology firsts, Mr. Kurzweil speaks from experience about the future of disabilities in an age of accelerating technology.
As one of the leading inventors of our time, Kurzweil presents a program for innovation, how to foster it in an organization, and how to bring inventions to market. He explains how the law of accelerating returns and the exponential growth of information technology are accelerating opportunities for innovation. In this talk, he draws upon his own history of innovation which led to his induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, founded by the U.S. Patent Office in 2002.
Based on his book, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever and his new health book, TRANSCEND: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever, Kurzweil addresses the merger of science, technology, and medicine and its impact on the healthcare industry and human longevity. He explains that as medicine becomes an information technology, it will be subject to the laws of accelerating returns, meaning that it will be a thousand times more powerful than today in ten years, and a million times more powerful in 20 years.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Ray Kurzweil
How to book Ray Kurzweil as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Ray Kurzweil as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Ray Kurzweil's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Ray Kurzweil or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Ray Kurzweil speaking fee?
Ray Kurzweil speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Ray Kurzweil to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Ray Kurzweil.
How can I contact Ray Kurzweil?
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Can I book Ray Kurzweil for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Ray Kurzweil is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Ray Kurzweil for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
