Zuckerberg and Pope spoke on how to use communication technologies to ease poverty and to make a message of hope arrive.
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Instead, it was a model of Facebook’s solar-powered Aquila aircraft, created to beam internet access to those areas of the world that are lacking connectivity.
Mr Zuckerberg, who was accompanied by his wife, Priscilla Chan, talked to the Pope about the role of new technologies in combating poverty.
Aquila, which completed its first successful test flight last month, has been created to beam internet to parts of the world that are not yet connected.
Zuckerberg gave the Pope a model of his company’s internet-serving drone, known as Aquila. Facebook in July had announced the first full-scale test flight of the Aquila. The innovative plane, with a wingspan greater than a 737 passenger jet, is created to beam Internet even to the world’s remotest areas. The drones are meant to fly at around 60,000 feet and stay aloft for months at a time.
The internet-aircraft plan stems from the work of the couple’s charitable foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The CEO hosted a Townhall Q&A in Rome, which was live-streamed on Facebook, as well.
The couple also visited Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and discussed what the company has done in the wake of the 6.2 magnitude quake that struck central Italy last week and how tech jobs are fueling the country’s economy.
Facebook Inc. will not become a media company, its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday, telling students the firm would remain a technology platform.
The Pope himself is no stranger to the power of social media and has been ranked one of the world’s most influential Twitter users, with more than 27 million followers.
Over the weekend, Zuckerberg posted an update and photo from the wedding of Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek, which was held near Lake Como in northern Italy.
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Mark Zuckerberg continues to making news on his Italy trip, the latest being an update on the AI he’s building to help around the house.
