Mark Zuckerberg Talks AI And That Musk Fight That's Never Going To Happen

Sitting in a glass-walled conference room nicknamed The Aquarium, Mark Zuckerberg runs a cost/benefit analysis on the topic that has brought him headlines this year: mixed martial arts. Today, he’s focusing on head shots versus body shots. “Getting hit in the face doesn’t hurt that much,” he deadpans. “It just does brain damage.”

The obviously-never-going-to-happen cage match with Elon Musk (“I assumed he wouldn’t do it”) put Zuckerberg back into the zeitgeist in the stupidest way, but it also served a business purpose: For much of his career, he has undermined his monumental achievements by wading through a swamp of missteps and democracy-crippling scandals. So the Musk beef was rare: an opportunity to play hero to the Tesla CEO’s petulant villain, to demonstrate that Facebook’s former “toddler CEO” has evolved into Meta’s statesman.

“The thing that determines your destiny isn’t a competitor,” he says. “It’s how you execute.”

Such reflection is well-timed. Zuckerberg will turn 40 next May, with a fortune estimated at $106 billion, a philanthropy arm designed for maximum impact and a commitment to transform one of the most important companies in the world, over which he has near total control. In many ways, he’s having his Bill Gates moment. Like Zuckerberg, Gates dropped out of Harvard to build a historically significant tech company. Like Zuckerberg, he was the nerdy boy-wonder face of his field. Like Zuckerberg, he produced fans, enemies and antitrust concerns on his brusque, relentless way to the top.

0:00 Introduction
0:06 Zuckerberg On The Biggest Technology Innovation Of Our Time
2:16 The Future Of Technology
4:52 What Is The Hardest Part Of Running Meta?
6:35 Who Is Zuckerberg's Rival?
8:09 Zuckerberg On Mimicking Competitors Features
8:56 Zuckerberg On Elon Musk

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

Stay Connected

Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

[TM-cbte]

I can't believe how far AI has advanced, his movements are so life-like!

[albertsitoe]

It’s really ironic that the more realistic AI gets the more life like Zuck gets. 😂

[erikm]

You can tell Zuck really struggles with communicating in a way that resonates with others, he's worried that he will say something insensitive or dystopian about the future. He probably realized that most people arent gonna be excited about more and more remote meetings and "virtual meetings" etc. But he's correct that its the direction the world is going because in the end is all about productivity and cost cutting.

[FarmerBenny]

Honestly Zuc seems a lot more comfortable, cohesive, and intelligent now compared to in the past. He's learning and growing. Martial arts seem to be grounding him in all the right ways.

[johnsonrepp]

Mark is the best AI we have ever seen.

[marchlopez]

- Mobile technology is the biggest innovation of Mark's lifetime.
- AI is a technology that he is excited about, and it has been making great breakthroughs in the past year.
- He believes that there will be multiple AI systems that people will interact with for different things.
- The metaverse is another technology that he is excited about, which will allow people to feel physically present with each other no matter where they are in the world.
- In the near term, VR will provide this experience, but in the long term, it will be possible through a pair of normal-looking glasses.
- The goal is to build the future of human connection through these technologies.
- Quest Pro and Quest 3 will allow for mixed reality and the blending of digital objects into the physical world around us.
- The development of glasses with the same capabilities is a difficult tech problem, but he hopes it will be solved in the next few years.

[kevincfoss]

There is something incredibly off-putting about listening to Mark talk about how magical it is to feel like you’re present in the same space as another person while he is visibly on edge having a conversation with people in the room.

[TheBlackClockOfTime]

Love how on AI he is completely open and confident in his body language. Then with the tech that bears his company name, he pauses, looks down, adjusts his position, swallows and adds "over time".

[HeyFinlay]

The elon diss got me screaming "the person would have to be pretty serious🤣" Zuck got jokes

[RyanOsmond]

Wow! I’m not even sure that woman knew even who she was interviewing!

[avayu]

“I just don’t want to be physically present”…..basically is what Zuckerborg is saying…..😂😢😂

[DJVibeDubstep]

The way he threw a jab at Elon saying “the heel hook would be used by an advanced individual” lmfao

[issiewizzie]

Goodness MMA - his shareholders must be scared, his insurance premium just went up

[stuff]

do humans really want this? How many articles are there talking about human loneliness as result of technology. Is this what we really want?

[maxjames]

Love Mark❤ always nice to listen to him and Threads is awesome man keep up the good work

[gustavofelicidade_]

Mark, Yann Lecun and Meta Lab are making such contribution to the open source community with llama API released

[MadamEllaMalala]

And that very last sentence meant: "He couldn't fight me even he wanted to!" 😂😂😂 Next level shade!

[BappyTechTips]

Metaverse?? Really? Not in your lifetime.

[Cymatix]

This looks fake. Hes not really sitting on that couch

[gamepool]

I love this guy to be honest, nobody is perfect period!