Apple co-founder warns of technocrats going into politics in speech in Barcelona

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak warned of major technocrats going into politics during a speech at Barcelona's Talent Arena developers trade fair on Tuesday.

"I think that the skills required in politics are very different to those skills needed in technology companies," Wozniak, a 74-year-old American entrepreneur and electrical engineer, said to hundreds of attendees at the fair.

He believes "it makes sense to run a government like a business." Still, he does not "see that happening in the case of Elon Musk," referring to the Tesla car manufacturer CEO who now leads the US Department of Government Efficiency under Donald J. Trump's presidency.

During his one-hour conversation on stage, Wozniak said that when running a company, people tend to "look for a consensus and a sharing;" therefore, when employees have opposing views on a way of leading, "you negotiate and compromise."

Huge companies

Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs in 1976, a company from which he stepped down almost a decade later. Now, speaking to several developers in the Catalan capital, Wozniak also questioned the technology companies' current businesses based on subscriptions.

"When Apple started, it was you who would set up your computer, and it was all of your own work, but after the internet came, now you have to subscribe, subscribe, and subscribe to everything, and once you have subscribed, you still do not own it," he said.

Tech companies "are huge," and they have a lot of money. Wozniak expressed his discontent with these businesses taking "direct roles just because they made it big in technology." Them becoming so involved in politics is something he does "not like at all." However, he recognized that technology groups have "always" hired lobbyists to have some political influence, but that is far from the current situation.

And the thing is that these companies are becoming "very big, and they own our lives," the Apple co-founder told an audience of software developers.

For him, the "cloud is a problem, as before you were able to protect your work, but now you need to trust" a company to share your creations.

Working from home

With the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, many companies and employees started working from home, a practice that is slowly disappearing as many employers require their staff to return to the offices.

Asked about his preference, Wozniak joked about and said that Covid-19 was the "best thing" that had ever happened to him. Not because of the disease but because of the lockdown. He normally travels to many places and during the pandemic he was able to stay at home and walk his dog with his wife.

However, he is well aware that "workers like working from home a lot," as opposed to employers who prefer "to have much more control."

He praises the possibility of having a hybrid mode, which he defends as the "good" option as some meetings and conversations are better in person, but having the opportunity to work from home or anywhere in the world is something that turned out to be a "boom that we did not know in the past, and now we do," he said.

Artificial intelligence

During the conference, Steve Wozniak also talked about regulating artificial intelligence, as he believes in the I (for intelligence) but not yet the A (for artificial).

"I trust the I, but not the A," he told attendees.

"Artificial intelligence will be very helpful; it will give a lot of ideas and directions on how to proceed," he said. However, he highlighted the importance of AI being unable to think for itself or cry instead of humans who get emotional.

Wozniak started his conference by discussing his beginnings before high school and as an Atari game developer.

Barcelona is hosting the Talent Arena, the first event in Europe dedicated to digital talent coinciding with the MWC25 mobile trade show taking place in the Catalan capital. 

At the three-day event, running from Monday to Wednesday, digital professionals meet with global technology companies and education institutions to create a hub for learning, networking, and professional growth.