Ray Kurzweil is a world-leading inventor, acclaimed futurist, and one of the most influential thinkers of our time, with a remarkable 30-year track record of accurate predictions. His life's work is a testament to the power of accelerating information technology, a principle he codified in his Law of Accelerating Returns. He is the principal inventor of foundational technologies, including the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition system.

Kurzweil’s technical genius led to numerous "firsts," including the first CCD flatbed scanner and the first music synthesizer capable of recreating orchestral instruments. These achievements earned him the National Medal of Technology and Innovation—America’s highest honor in technology—and induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He has received twenty honorary doctorates and honors from three U.S. presidents, underscoring the widespread impact of his technological contributions.

As an author, his books are considered foundational texts for understanding the future. The Singularity Is Near and How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed are New York Times bestsellers, a status achieved again with his most recent book, The Singularity Is Nearer. His website, KurzweilAI.net, is a major resource, tracking daily breakthroughs in science and technology for over three million new readers annually. As a speaker, Kurzweil addresses critical subjects such as Innovation & Invention, Health and Longevity, and Business & Investing in an age of exponential growth. He presents an optimistic argument, backed by extensive data, that accelerating information technology has the scale and ability to solve the world’s grandest challenges—from energy and the environment to poverty. He provides audiences with a compelling program for fostering innovation and mastering strategy in a hyper-accelerating world.