Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta and the founder of Facebook, has long faced internet comments that he acts like a robot, and an interviewer recently alluded to them before a two-hour conversation.
Lex Fridman, a podcaster and computer scientist, had an interview with the executive on Monday, covering a wide range of themes, including the metaverse, social media issues, and his bedtime ritual with his two young daughters.
Fridman jokingly requested that Zuckerberg complete a CAPTCHA, the visual puzzles that users are required to solve in order to verify to a computer that they are human and not a robot.
For his prepared or emotionless speaking skills, some have dubbed Zuckerberg “Zuckerborg.”
After he was interrogated in front of Congress in 2018 for his company’s handling of millions of users’ data in what became known as the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the internet had a field day generating memes of him. Many people compared him to Data, the android character from “Star Trek.”
In 2018, “Saturday Night Live” aired a parody starring cast member Alex Moffat as a robotic Zuckerberg.
In a 2019 interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt, Zuckerberg recognised his robotic cadence. The CEO was asked if he was “Facebook’s best communicator” by the reporter.
Zuckerberg responded: “Historically, I’ve had a very hard time expressing myself. I just come across as robotic. This is one of the things that… I’m growing up, I need to get better at, in running this company.”