Meet Google's futurist-in-chief

Ray Kurzweil has made a name for himself in the past few decades as an inventor, futurist and best-selling author. Now, he's heading Google's artificial intelligence efforts. He's currently leading a team that's trying to develop artificial intelligence by modeling the functioning of the human brain.

Kurzweil ended up at Google in late 2012 after meeting with CEO Larry Page to give him an advance copy of his book, "How To Create A Mind." He was looking for an investment in a company he was planning to launch that would focus on reverse-engineering the brain.

Kurzweil is known for provocative statements about how technology will shape our future, and critics have accused him of being long on hype and short on substance.