By Invitation | Artificial intelligence

Ray Kurzweil on how AI will transform the physical world

The changes will be particularly profound in energy, manufacturing and medicine, says the futurist

Illustration: Dan Williams

BY THE TIME children born today are in kindergarten, artificial intelligence (AI) will probably have surpassed humans at all cognitive tasks, from science to creativity. When I first predicted in 1999 that we would have such artificial general intelligence (AGI) by 2029, most experts thought I’d switched to writing fiction. But since the spectacular breakthroughs of the past few years, many experts think we will have AGI even sooner—so I’ve technically gone from being an optimist to a pessimist, without changing my prediction at all.

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Dawn of the solar age

From the June 22nd 2024 edition

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More from By Invitation

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A lack of social cohesion compared with 1945 makes them even more daunting, says the former Labour leader and Starmer confidant

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A competition to replace Joe Biden would better serve the party, and the country, argues Joe Ravitch


Halt the Olympics to save the planet, pleads a sports historian

David Goldblatt thinks pausing the spectacle might jolt the world into grasping the severity of the climate challenge


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