Despite his claims of political neutrality, Zuckerberg acknowledged the necessity of engaging with government officials. “We will always want to work with and have a good partnership and collaboration with governments,” the 41-year-old Facebook founder told Heath. “That’s going to be especially true in our home country, but it’s also true in other countries around the world where we serve large amounts of people.”
Zuckerberg explained his distinction between political engagement and partisan activity, suggesting his recent overtures to the Trump administration represent necessary business collaboration rather than ideological alignment.
“I think this administration for a number of reasons is definitely more forward-leaning on wanting to help build out infrastructure,” Zuckerberg said, referring to the current regulatory environment as more favorable to tech companies.
“If we end up misspending a couple of hundred billion dollars, I think that that is going to be very unfortunate obviously,” Zuckerberg said. “But what I’d say is I actually think the risk is higher on the other side. If you if you build too slowly and then super intelligence is possible in three years, but you built it out assuming it would be there in five years, then you’re just out of position on what I think is going to be the most important technology that enables the most new products and innovation and value creation and history.”
You can watch the full Access interview with Zuckerberg below:
