Cringey Tech Execs Swoon Over Mark Zuckerberg’s "Cool" New Look

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a newfound sense of, er, style — and his fellow techsters are very into it.

Throwing Fits

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a newfound sense of, er, style — and his fellow tech leaders are very into it.

As the Washington Post reports, the 40-year-old tech mogul's new look features shirts like his flashy "AUT ZUCK AUT NIHIL" one, which he created in tandem with a menswear designer as part of a larger capsule collection.

And his "bro-ified" sense of personal style is capturing all the right attention.

Along with rocking custom tees, the millennial billionaire's grown-out curls and newly-built physique courtesy of his mixed martial arts (MMA) hobby seem indicative not just of a fresh look, but also of a fresh outlook.

That's at least according to other tech execs who are seemingly trying to score points with the billionaire.

"[It’s] resonated with a younger generation in terms of style and presentation," tech investor Brianne Kimmel, the founder of the Worklife Ventures firm, told the WaPo of Zuckerberg's new swag. "There’s a cool factor that didn’t exist before, and now male tech CEOs have a playbook to achieve similar results."

Beyond that new "cool"-ness is, apparently, a new confidence that has become apparent to investors and admirers alike.

"I don’t apologize anymore," an all-grown-up and feisty Zuckerberg said during a lengthy taped discussion of the "Acquired" podcast last month.

"We’ve noticed," one of the hosts responded.

Good Vibrations

Even ex-employees are feeling the allure of Zuck's new vibe.

"Zuckerberg is ruthless as both a leader and an executive, but in his heart, he’s just a start-up guy who wants to be cool with the nerds," a former Facebook executive told the newspaper. "He’s living his best life."

Though the Meta CEO may well have come to this style evolution on his own, WaPo has also uncovered evidence that it could have been steered by none other than former PayPal CEO and billionaire investor Peter Thiel, a trusted mentor and advisor to the younger tech scion.

In a 2020 email disclosed during discovery in a lawsuit filed against Meta by the state of Tennessee, Thiel encouraged Zuckerberg to redo his image to appeal to youthful audiences.

"As the head of the most successful Millennial tech company, it makes more sense for Zuckerberg to present himself as 'Millennial spokesperson,'" rather than "'Mark as a Baby Boomer construct of how a well-behaved Millennial is supposed to act,'" the 56-year-old entrepreneur wrote to his younger protegé.

"Finally, I think there’s also some distinction between me and the company here," Zuckerberg responded. "This is likely particularly important for how I show up because I’m the most well-known person of my generation."

Though it's impossible to say whether that advice is at the heart of the Meta CEO's rebrand, he did seem eager to follow it — and lo and behold, just a few years later, we have a spiffy new Zuck.

More on Meta: Zuckerberg Says It's Fine to Train AI on Your Data Because It Probably Has No Value Anyway

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Cringey Tech Execs Swoon Over Mark Zuckerberg’s "Cool" New Look

Mark Zuckerberg Shows Off Bizarre Video of Himself Leg Pressing Chicken Nuggets

AI might be worsening carbon emissions, but at least we have this fake video of Mark Zuckerberg leg-pressing chicken nuggets, we guess.

Combo Meal

Meta-formerly-Facebook announced a new suite of AI-powered video-creating and editing tools today, collectively called "Meta Movie Gen."

Longtime CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off the new AI offering in his favorite way to promote anything: by showing off his love for fitness — albeit with some very strange, very AI twists.

In a bizarre Instagram video, Zuck can be seen doing leg presses in a series of increasingly strange AI-generated settings. In the first scene, he's pictured using the machine in a neon-lit gym; in the next, he's dressed like Caeser and pictured against a distinctly ancient Roman backdrop. At one point he's pressing dripping racks of gold.

Then, in perhaps the strange scene of all, Zuck is suddenly pictured leg-pressing a large bucket of chicken nuggets whilst surrounded by a sea of french fries.

"Every day is leg day with Meta's new MovieGen AI model that can create and edit videos," Zuck captioned the video. "Coming to Instagram next year."

Sure! Why not. Generative AI might be guzzling energy and drastically worsening carbon emissions in the process, but we get... a fake billionaire nugget press. Will somebody please make it make sense?

Mixed Reactions

The top comments on the video were overwhelmingly positive.

"Whoa!" wrote one impressed Instagram user. "That's exciting!!"

But other Instagram users were more skeptical.

"Second richest man in the world spending his [research & development] money on this," commented one user, seemingly incredulous of Meta's resource allocation.

"How many artists did you steal from to train your AI?" asked another netizen. A fair question, given that Zuck recently drew criticism for declaring that "individual creators or publishers tend to overestimate the value of their specific content."

Looking Ahead

In a press release, Meta characterized Movie Gen as an "advanced and immersive storytelling suite of models" with "four capabilities: video generation, personalized video generation, precise video editing, and audio generation."

But the chicken nugget promo aside, there's no set release date for the tool.

"We aren't ready to release this as a product anytime soon," Meta's chief product officer Chris Cox wrote in a Threads post, "but we wanted to share where we are since the results are getting quite impressive."

Or, alternatively, Meta wants its shareholders to know that a competitor to OpenAI's Sora model is in the works — and that Zuck can leg press copious amounts of chicken nuggets.

More on Mark Zuckerberg: Zuckerberg Says It's Fine to Train AI on Your Data Because It Probably Has No Value Anyway

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Mark Zuckerberg Shows Off Bizarre Video of Himself Leg Pressing Chicken Nuggets