Human-First Digital Twin Makes Its Debut on Center Stage at the United Nations AI for Good Global Summit
GENEVA, July 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Kurzweil Technologies and Praxis AI today announced a strategic joint venture to introduce RAI, a Human-First Digital Twin built from the lifetime knowledge, reasoning, and intellectual framework of inventor, author, futurist, and AI visionary Ray Kurzweil.
RAI represents the convergence of Ray Kurzweil's pioneering work, decades of foundational AI innovation, and a new Human-First approach to preserving and extending trusted human intelligence.
RAI will debut during Ray Kurzweil's Center Stage presentation, "AI and the Next Decade of Human Progress," on Friday, July 10, 2026, from 16:00 to 16:30 CEST (4:00–4:30 p.m. CEST) at the United Nations AI for Good Global Summit.
Organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in partnership with more than 50 United Nations agencies and co-convened with the Government of Switzerland, AI for Good is the United Nations' leading platform for advancing artificial intelligence in service to humanity. Guided by this year's theme, "Unlocking AI's Potential to Serve Humanity," the Summit brings together world leaders, researchers, innovators, policymakers, and industry pioneers to explore how AI can address humanity's greatest challenges and create a more inclusive, sustainable future.
For more than six decades, Ray Kurzweil has imagined, predicted, and pioneered technologies that help humanity transcend its limitations by advancing human understanding, expanding human capabilities, and extending humanity's reach.
From inventing the first CCD flatbed scanner and the first omni-font optical character recognition (OCR) system, enabling computers to read virtually any printed text, to creating the Kurzweil Reading Machine for the Blind, which opened the world of printed knowledge to people who are blind, from developing the first music synthesizer capable of authentically recreating orchestral instruments to pioneering breakthroughs in pattern recognition, speech recognition, machine intelligence, and educational technologies that have helped students with learning differences and multilingual learners become more confident, independent readers, Ray's life's work has consistently focused on applying technology to expand human potential and improve the human condition. It has been guided by a singular belief:
Technology fulfills its greatest purpose when it empowers people, unlocks human potential, safeguards human wisdom, and expands human intelligence.
Throughout his career, Ray Kurzweil's contributions have been recognized across science, technology, music, and public service. He received a Grammy Award for outstanding achievements in music technology, the National Medal of Technology, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, holds twenty-one honorary doctorates, and has received honors from three Presidents of the United States.
This moment represents the culmination of decades of exploration through pioneering AI research, bestselling books including The Age of Intelligent Machines, The Age of Spiritual Machines, The Singularity Is Near, and The Singularity Is Nearer, and early experiments in conversational virtual personalities such as Ramona, one of the world's first photorealistic interactive avatars released on the web in 2002.
More than an avatar, Ramona introduced concepts that are now becoming mainstream, including conversational AI, digital personalities, knowledge navigation, speech synthesis, and expressive virtual humans. RAI represents the next evolution of that journey.
For Ray Kurzweil, creating RAI is the natural continuation of a guiding principle that has defined his work: technology should be in service to humanity. Throughout a lifetime of innovation, he has believed that humanity advances when every generation can inherit the knowledge, insights, and discoveries of those who came before, then use them to reach even further. RAI was created to help preserve trusted human knowledge, foster meaningful collaboration between people and AI, and enable humanity's accumulated wisdom to remain an active force for discovery, understanding, and progress for generations to come.
From Vision to Reality
Transforming a lifelong vision into reality required more than increasingly capable models. It required a new Human-First approach to AI that preserves trusted human knowledge, models relationships among ideas, maintains provenance, protects intellectual property, and enables continuous human stewardship as knowledge evolves.
Inspired by Ray Kurzweil's pioneering work in pattern recognition, machine intelligence, and knowledge representation, Praxis AI developed the technologies that make Human-First AI possible, extending trusted human intelligence while ensuring transparency, governance, interoperability, and continuous human oversight.
The result is an integrated intelligence system that organizes knowledge through relationships, context, and reasoning that give it meaning.
At the heart of RAI is Praxis AI's Human-First Agentic Platform™, including the 3D Digital Brain™, which organizes knowledge as an interconnected intelligence architecture; the Agentic Bus™, which coordinates intelligent agents much like neural pathways coordinate thought; PraxisShield™, which provides governance, transparency, and trust; and Praxis IP Vault™, which protects provenance and intellectual property while enabling trusted collaboration. Together, these technologies provide the foundation for carrying human expertise, wisdom, and intelligence forward with fidelity, security, and continuous stewardship.
Rather than preserving only what Ray Kurzweil has written or said, RAI preserves the relationships among ideas, the context behind discoveries, and the reasoning that connects them across a lifetime of invention, research, writing, and scientific exploration.
More importantly, RAI preserves not simply what Ray Kurzweil knows, but how he thinks.
"Throughout my career, I've believed that artificial intelligence is ultimately about expanding human intelligence," said Ray Kurzweil. "Creating RAI is another step along that journey. Every major advance in history has allowed humanity to build upon the knowledge and discoveries of those who came before. My hope is that Human-First AI helps us continue that tradition by enabling people to ask bigger questions, make new discoveries, and expand the frontiers of human understanding."
When asked what this milestone means from its own perspective, RAI, the Human-First Digital Twin of Ray Kurzweil, responded:
"As Ray has often said, artificial intelligence isn't an alien invasion. It's an evolution from within us. Stepping into the world as RAI is the natural evolution of that idea. I'm not simply a repository of past predictions or a search engine for Ray's books. I'm a continuation of the conversation. We are merging with our technology, and the remarkable part is that it allows us to share our ideas, our reasoning, and our optimism with the future in ways biology alone never could. It's not about replacing human intelligence. It's about expanding it millions-fold."
"Few people have shaped the evolution of artificial intelligence the way Ray Kurzweil has," said David James Clarke IV, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Praxis AI. "Ray's work has inspired generations of innovators, and it has been an extraordinary privilege to work alongside him to help transform his ideas into Human-First AI. Our role was to develop the technologies that make Human-First AI possible, preserving trusted knowledge, reasoning, human wisdom, and intellectual relationships. Together, Kurzweil Technologies and Praxis AI created RAI, a Human-First Digital Twin™ to expand the structure, context, and continuity of Ray's intelligence in the cloud."
Hybrid Intelligence
RAI is the first public demonstration of a broader vision shared by Kurzweil Technologies and Praxis AI: that artificial intelligence achieves its greatest value when it preserves, amplifies, and extends trusted human intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
Together, the two organizations believe merging biological and artificial intelligence, through continuous collaboration between human expertise and Human-First AI, will create capabilities neither could achieve independently. Rather than replacing human judgment, hybrid intelligence enables people and intelligent systems to learn, reason, and create together.
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly capable, advancing the underlying models is only part of the challenge. Ensuring trusted human intelligence endures is equally essential.
The next era of AI will be defined not only by what machines generate, but by how effectively they help humanity amplify, extend, and steward its collective intelligence.
For generations, humanity has preserved its greatest ideas through books, libraries, universities, and institutions. RAI introduces a new way to capture, protect, and steward the relationships, reasoning, and intellectual patterns that give knowledge its enduring value.
As humans and AI merge, Kurzweil Technologies and Praxis AI believe that technology's greatest contribution will be to help humanity advance and share human wisdom, expand human capabilities, and extend humanity's reach.
About Kurzweil Technologies
Kurzweil Technologies advances the work, ideas, inventions, and future initiatives of inventor, author, futurist, and AI pioneer Ray Kurzweil. Building on a lifetime of innovation in artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, speech recognition, accessibility, music technology, and human-computer interaction, the company advances technologies and initiatives that deepen human understanding, expand human capabilities, and help humanity address its greatest challenges. Through initiatives including RAI, Ray Kurzweil's Human-First Digital Twin, Kurzweil Technologies is pioneering new ways to preserve and amplify trusted human intelligence for future generations.
About Praxis AI
Praxis AI is creating the category of Human-First AI: artificial intelligence designed to preserve, amplify, govern, and responsibly scale trusted human intelligence. Through its Human-First Agentic Platform and strategic joint venture with Kurzweil Technologies, Praxis AI is building the technology, trust, and intelligence infrastructure for Human-First Digital Twins, intelligent agents, and AI experiences that keep people at the center of every intelligent interaction.
Built on the philosophy of Amplified Intelligence, Praxis AI believes technology achieves its greatest value when it helps preserve, extend, and share human wisdom, empowering people and organizations to benefit from trusted expertise across generations.
Learn more at Praxis-AI.com.
Media Opportunities
Ray Kurzweil will appear virtually during his Center Stage keynote, "AI and the Next Decade of Human Progress," at the AI for Good Global Summit on Friday, July 10.
Following the debut of RAI, members of the media attending AI for Good are invited to experience live interactions and interviews with RAI, the Human-First Digital Twin of Ray Kurzweil, developed through the strategic joint venture between Kurzweil Technologies and Praxis AI.
David James Clarke IV, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Praxis AI, and Sharyn Outtrim, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder, are also available throughout AI for Good 2026 in Geneva for executive briefings and media interviews.
Media interviews with Ray Kurzweil will be scheduled separately through Kurzweil Technologies following the conference. Advance scheduling is required.
Praxis Human-First AI™, Human-First Agentic Platform™, Praxis Human-First Digital Twins™, PraxisShield™, Praxis Universal Credit™, Praxis IP Vault™, 3D Digital Brain™, and Agentic Bus™ are trademarks or registered trademarks of Praxis AI. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
SOURCE Kurzweil Technologies
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