Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn't think government can solve world issues alone
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook believes the government and the private sector need to work together to solve the world’s problems.
“The issues that we face cannot be addressed solely by government,” Cook said while speaking at the TIME 100 Summit in New York City on Tuesday. “We should not be looking for government to solve all the problems. I think it takes the public sector, the private sector and academia kind of working together to try to solve some of these huge problems.”
Cook called some problems -- such as immigration -- “deeply personal” to Apple employees, 300 of whom are recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, though he emphasized the company’s focuses on policies not politics.
“You know Apple -- this is probably not known to a lot of people in here -- but Apple doesn't have a PAC,” he said. “Apple is probably the only large company I would think or one of the very few that doesn't have a PAC. I refuse to have one because it shouldn't exist.”
Apple does not donate to any political candidates.
The CEO of the iPhone-maker also touched on Apple’s legal battle with the FBI about whether the government had the right to unlock an iPhone, saying the government attempted to move against company in a “very dishonest manner.”
The dispute began in December 2015, when the FBI obtained an iPhone 5C that was owned by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino attack, which left 14 people dead. The phone was locked with a four-digit password; Apple declined to create software to enable the FBI to unlock the phone. The government eventually circumvented Apple by using a third-party to unlock the phone, thereby avoiding a court hearing between the Department of Justice and Apple.
“And I wish that case would have gone to court, to be honest,” Cook said, adding, “Our worst fears have been confirmed that it was a very rigged case to begin with. And so I think this this was not the government's finest hour.”