I would like to introduce “The Singularity Institute” as below:
About Us
Our MissionThe Singularity Institute brings rational analysis and rational strategy to the challenges facing humanity as we develop cognitive technologies that will exceed the current upper bounds on human intelligence. Inspired by the latest science of human fallibility, we strive to correct the biases that run wild in standard futurism and philanthropy; we convene the annual Singularity Summit to coordinate and educate scientists and other concerned individuals on these issues; inspire our Visiting Fellows from college students to PhDs to address these issues in their future careers; and support our Research Fellows as they engage in original research on topics ranging from human rationality and cognitive enhancement to foundational research in Artificial Intelligence.
Team
President
Michael Vassar is SIAI’s President, and provides overall leadership of the SIAI as it develops its research capabilities and its role as a forum for discussion of the challenges and potential of artificial general intelligence. He is also responsible for the organization of the Singularity Summit. Previously, he was a Founder and Chief Strategist at SirGroovy.com, an online music licensing firm. Prior to that, he held positions with Aon, the Peace Corps, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Michael has been writing and speaking on topics related to the safe development of disruptive technologies for a number of years: his papers include the Lifeboat Foundation analysis of the risks of advanced molecular manufacturing co-authored with Robert Freitas, and “Corporate Cornucopia”, authored for the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology Task Force. He holds an M.B.A. and a B.S. in biochemistry.
Email: mvassar(at)singinst(dot)org
Singularity Summit Co-Founder
Ray Kurzweil, CEO of Kurzweil Technologies, has been described as “the restless genius” by the Wall Street Journal, and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes. Inc. Magazine ranked him #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States, calling him the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison,” and PBS included him as one of the 16 “revolutionaries who made America,” along with other inventors of the past two centuries. As one of the leading inventors of our time, Ray has worked in such areas as music synthesis, speech and character recognition, reading technology, virtual reality, and cybernetic art. He was the principal developer of the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition. All of these pioneering technologies continue today as market leaders. His website, KurzweilAI.net, has over one million readers. Among his many honors, he is the recipient of the $500,000 MIT-Lemelson Prize, the world’s largest for innovation. In 1999, he received the National Medal of Technology, the nation’s highest honor in technology, from President Clinton. In 2002, he was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame , established by the US Patent Office. Ray has also received twelve honorary Doctorates and honors from three U.S. presidents. His books include The Age of Intelligent Machines, The Age of Spiritual Machines, and Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. Three of his books have been national best sellers. His latest best-selling book, published by Viking Press, is The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.
Chairman, Board of Directors
Edwin Evans is the Chairman of the Singularity Institute Board of Directors and the Co-Founder of Quinly Inc., a developer of applications for social networks and mobile platforms. Prior to starting Quinly, Edwin was employed as a Senior Software Engineer at Motorola, KLA-Tencor, and Aveo. Edwin is also a co-sponsor of the 2010 Singularity Research Challenge. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Contact Us
For general inquiries, send email to institute@singinst.org.
Singularity Institute
P.O. Box 472079
San Francisco, CA, 94147 USA
