In a 2019 interview with NBC News, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted he “comes across as robotic” when he communicates with Meta staff.
Years earlier, in an innocent slip of the tongue, Zuckerberg said to a student at a public high-school Q&A “You need to focus and try not to let stuff bother you as much as possible, but it is going to bother you because you’re human. I was human. I am human, still. But ... I was just referring to myself in the past. Not that I was not human.”
What Happened: The 37-year-old billionaire recently visited the awkward and popular "Lex Fridman Podcast" where Fridman presented a CAPTCHA to Zuckerberg, asking him to "circle all of the traffic lights" to prove that Zuckerberg is in fact not a robot.
Zuckerberg successfully completed the CAPTCHA, Fridman then responded with: “You actually did it. That is very impressive performance. Okay, now we can initiate the interview procedure.”
After its completion, both parties smiled in jest. Shortly after, the initial question in the interview was presented.
This is not the first time "the Zuck" has been portrayed as a robot. Saturday Night Live famously ran a skit in 2018 on the “Weekend Update” segment of the show, where Zuckerberg was displayed as an “unfeeling, robotic CEO.”
Related Content: What Does Mark Zuckerberg Think About The Meaning Of Life — And Death?
Why It Matters: While Zuckerberg may be viewed as robotic, he has dedicated his life to creating things for human connection. An example of this is the $10-billion investment in the metaverse to transform Facebook to Meta Platforms.
It's a space that Zuckerberg hopes will change the way people create and understand what is real by combining the real world and virtual world.
"The real world is a combination of the physical world and the virtual world, but I think over time as we get more technology, the physical world is becoming less of a percent of the real world and I think that opens up a lot of opportunities for people."
FB Price Action: Meta shares gained 2.27% Wednesday, closing at $208.11.
Photo by Anthony Quintano via Wikimedia.
