With the public announcement of the $400,000 Online Matching Challenge via http://www.singinst.org/challenge, the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI) plans to greatly expand its research program.

Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) May 20, 2007 -- "The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI) is playing a critical role in advancing humanity's understanding of the profound promise and peril of a strong AI," says Ray Kurzweil, author of THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR

"SIAI is the premier nonprofit in the world focusing on its safe realization, which is critical to ensuring that the vast potential benefits of the singularity can be enjoyed by all of humanity", according to Kurzweil. At the beginning of 2007, Kurzweil joined the Singularity Institute's Board of Directors.

With the public announcement of the $400,000 Online Matching Challenge via http://www.singinst.org/challenge, the Singularity Institute plans to greatly expand its research program to create artificial general intelligence (AGI). Challenge funds will go toward the SIAI R&D Program, the SIAI Research Fellowship Program, and The Singularity Summit 2007 to be held September 8-9th at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco:http://www.singinst.org/events/speakers

"The ideas of a singularity scenario and Friendly AI are powerful, but more importantly, relevant now. I support SIAI because they are making unique contributions to these critical areas of knowledge. I have pledged $200,000 in matching funds to the Matching Challenge to help grow the Institute, with an additional $50,000 available if half of the Challenge is matched by May 21st, 2007," says Peter Thiel, Pay Pal Founder and SIAI Advisor. Tyler Emerson, Executive Director of the Singularity Institute, says, "The recent success and number of pledges received from individuals toward our $400,000 Online Matching Challenge Campaign is evidence of the value placed on our research toward a friendly, artificial general intelligence.

People today realize that the singularity scenario is not just a concept, but a reality that may occur in the coming decades. Our philanthropic mission at the Singularity Institute is to prepare and ensure a safe and beneficial outcome for future generations to come."

The Singularity Institute's mission video (free): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A9pGhwQbS0

For More Information Contact:

Tyler Emerson

Executive Director

(650) 353-6063

emerson @ singinst

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 Magazine ranked him #8 among entrepreneurs in the US, 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 worlds 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 book, published by Viking Press, is The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.