Meta's Zuckerberg Seeks 'Active Role' in Shaping Trump Administration's AI and Tech Policies

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants an 'active role' in Trump administration tech policies

AI trip planners will soon be better than human travel agents, Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel said Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META+2.65%), hopes to play "an active role in the debates that any administration needs to have about maintaining America's leadership in the technological sphere," Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, said in a briefing with journalists Tuesday. Clegg emphasized the role of U.S. tech policy, according to the Financial Times, particularly given the rapid development of artificial intelligence and its role in both cybersecurity and global competition. He added that it is "tremendously important given all the geostrategic uncertainties around the world, and particularly the pivotal role that AI will play." On the campaign trail, Trump promised to roll back the Biden administration's 2023 executive order on AI, which set goals to establish the U.S. as a leader in the safe and ethical use of AI. According to the Biden administration, that order has resulted in requirements for major AI developers to share their safety test results with the federal government and directed federal agencies to establish guardrails for the use of AI systems. The U.S. AI Safety Institute has also started testing Anthropic and OpenAI's models, and the Department of Defense has conducted a pilot study to use AI as a defense for government software. According to the 2024 Republican platform, the party will seek to repeal the "dangerous" executive order that it claims hinders AI innovation and "imposes Radical Leftwing ideas" on AI development. While Zuckerberg hasn't remained as close to Trump's elbow as Musk, he has visited the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Meta said in a statement shared with the FT that Zuckerberg was "grateful" for the invitation and that "[i]t's an important time for the future of American innovation." Zuckerberg and his company have had a complicated relationship with the federal government and regulators. In an August letter, Zuckerberg said he regretted not pushing back against calls from the federal officials to remove COVID-19 related posts from Facebook and Instagram. "We're acutely aware -- because users quite rightly raised their voice and complained about this -- that we sometimes over enforce, we make mistakes and we remove or restrict innocuous or innocent content," Clegg said. For its part, Meta has splurged on AI this year. In its third-quarter earnings report, the company raised capital expenditure estimates for 2024 to between $38 billion and $40 billion. The company said in late October that it expects "significant capital expenditures growth in 2025" and "significant acceleration in infrastructure expense growth next year." "First, it's clear that there are a lot of new opportunities to use new AI advances to accelerate our core business that should have strong ROI over the next few years," Zuckerberg said on an Oct. 31 call with analysts. "So, I think we should invest more there." "And second, our AI investments continue to require serious infrastructure, and I expect to continue investing significantly there too," he added.

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg wants 'active role' in shaping Trump tech...

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg wants to play an "active role" in shaping tech regulations under President-elect Donald Trump's administration, the social media giant's top policy executive said Nick Clegg, Meta's head of global affairs, also admitted that the Facebook and Instagram parent "overdid it a bit" while moderating pandemic-related content. Zuckerberg is aiming to have "an active role in the debates that any administration needs to have about maintaining America's leadership in the technological sphere," Clegg said during a Monday press briefing, according to The Financial Times. US leadership on tech issues "is tremendously important given all the geostrategic uncertainties around the world, and particularly the pivotal role that AI will play," Clegg added. The mea culpa by Clegg is the latest sign that Meta wants to cozy up to Trump - who has previously called Facebook "an enemy of the people" and slammed its billionaire founder for censoring conservative viewpoints. Last week, Zuckerberg had dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago after he reportedly requested a meeting with the president-elect to discuss "the incoming administration." Afterward, Meta said that Zuckerberg was "grateful for the invitation." Zuckerberg wants Meta's efforts "to improve the precision and accuracy with which we act on our rules" to be "an area of ongoing focus" at the company, according to Clegg. "We're acutely aware -- because users quite rightly raised their voice and complained about this -- that we sometimes over enforce, we make mistakes and we remove or restrict innocuous or innocent content," Clegg said. Trump has said he opposed the idea of banning China-owned TikTok in part because it would "make Facebook bigger." Trump and his allies had targeted Meta as a recently as July, accusing the company of suppressing information about the attempted assassination of the then-presidential candidate at a July 13 rally. In August, Zuckerberg shocked the tech industry by admitting that the Biden administration had pressured Facebook to censor content related to COVID-19 in 2021 - including lighthearted memes and satirical posts. Zuckerberg made the admission in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). The Facebook founder has also acknowledged that the company was wrong to censor The Post's exclusive reporting about Hunter Biden's laptop in the past. The overtures have occurred even as Meta is locked in a fierce competition with the likes of Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI to develop advanced artificial intelligence tools. Unlike its rivals, Meta supports an "open source" approach to AI. Another key figure jockeying for influence on AI policy is X owner Elon Musk, who has emerged as a key adviser to Trump and has frequently clashed with Zuckerberg over the years.