By Cristina Gallardo

BARCELONA--Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak criticized Elon Musk's role in U.S. politics, saying the skills needed to set up successful tech companies are very different from those required to run a government.

Wozniak, the designer of the Apple I and Apple II computers that kick-started the personal computing revolution, told Talent Arena, an event running alongside the tech trade show Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, that he doesn't like large U.S. tech companies massing great influence and power.

"I think that the skills for politics are very different from the skills for technology companies to have success," he said in an onstage interview with Dow Jones Newswires at the event.

Wozniak refused to take on any managerial positions at Apple before it became the tech giant it is today, but he is still on the company's payroll.

In recent years, he has taken on the role of outspoken tech maverick, criticizing the industry on occasion for what he sees as its ethical shortcomings.

"It does make sense to run a government like a business, but I don't think that is happening in the case of Elon Musk. When you run a business, you look around and you look for a consensus. If half of your employees feel one way and the other half feel the other way, you negotiate, you compromise."

Since Trump's return to the White House in January, Musk has spearheaded efforts to slash U.S. government spending by cutting the size of the federal workforce and reviewing budget lines across the U.S. administration. He took on that program on top of his roles as chief executive of Tesla and Space X.

Musk has argued that the cost-cutting drive at the newly created Department of Government Efficiency is necessary for the U.S. to address its deficit.

Wozniak acknowledged that some U.S. technology companies had growth so large and wealthy that they will always have some political involvement by, for instance, lobbying lawmakers.

However, the engineer said that lobbying was very different from tech leaders taking up "direct roles" in politics "just because they made it big in technology."

He added: "I don't like it at all from what I'm seeing."

Musk's companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and X, didn't respond to requests for comment on Wozniak's remarks.

Apple's co-founder also reflected on the need to strengthen safety around artificial intelligence, calling on regulators to ensure people are being made aware whenever they consume AI-generated content.

"You should know if you're reading something that came directly from AI, not from a human that interpreted it and put it on their own words," he said. "You should be told which AI, how was it trained, what sources of the Internet was it trained on, and you should have citations like scientific articles in scientific journals."

Write to Cristina Gallardo at cristina.gallardo@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 04, 2025 09:47 ET (14:47 GMT)

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