Google, like many top tech companies is always taking on new employees—but in landing Ray Kurzweil this week, the search giant hasn’t added your run-of-the-mill new hire.

A brilliant technologist who also happens to be one of the world’s most renowned futurists, Kurzweil announced on his blog Friday that he’ll be joining Google on Dec. 17 as a director of engineering. The 64-year-old author and inventor said he will focus on machine learning and language processing projects in his new role.

“I’ve been interested in technology, and machine learning in particular, for a long time,” Kurzweil wrote on his blog. “When I was 14, I designed software that wrote original music, and later went on to invent the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, among other inventions. I’ve always worked to create practical systems that will make a difference in people’s lives, which is what excites me as an inventor.” […]