Watch Apple CEO Tim Cook Speak at MIT
Apple CEO and 2017 MIT commencement speaker Tim Cook told students on Friday that “technology alone isn’t the solution.”
The speech was streamed live, and you can now watch it on video. His talk begins at the 49:30 mark.
The 56-year-old executive, who has helmed the technology company since 2011, told students they should be mindful of their roles not just as technologists but humanitarians, a view he said was inspired by his time working with the late Steve Jobs.
“I had never met a leader with such passion, or encountered a company with such a clear and compelling purpose to serve humanity,” he said of Jobs, adding, “When you work toward something greater than yourself, you find meaning, you find purpose. So the question I hope you will carry forward from here is, how will you serve humanity?”
Citing advice he says he got from the pope, he noted that too often leaders in the technology sphere focus too much on products and not as much on whether those products are being used as forces of good in the world. “Technology alone isn’t the solution,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s even part of the problem.”
He also offered this sage wisdom: “Don’t listen to trolls, and for God’s sake don’t become one.”
MIT, which was just today ranked first on a list of top colleges (sorry, Harvard), graduated nearly 3,000 combined undergraduate and graduates on Friday, according to the college’s MIT News page.
