Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg (마크 저커버그) has directly worked on Facebook code for the first time in about 20 years.

The online outlet GigaZine reported on April 6 that Zuckerberg submitted a total of three changes to Facebook code in March using an AI coding support tool.

Zuckerberg was a developer-turned-executive who wrote code himself in the early days of the company, but moved gradually away from hands-on coding as it grew. He is known to have last contributed to Facebook code in 2006. The changes carry meaning beyond a simple technical fix. That is because they are being interpreted as a symbolic example of how advances in AI coding tools can encourage top executives to return to development.

The development process proceeded in the same way as for ordinary engineers. After submitting the changes, Zuckerberg followed the steps of receiving approval through code review and merging them into the codebase. One of the three changes drew attention inside the organisation after receiving more than 200 approvals. Some also say it is an example showing how code review culture works in large organisations.

Some in the industry say a trend of technology leaders returning to hands-on work is spreading. The Pragmatic Engineer said, "There are increasing cases of founders and executives with a software engineering background getting hands-on with code again," adding, "It is unusual to see technology leaders directly participate in development across various organisations like this." Veteran engineer Abhishek Ray also said, "If executives begin participating in coding using AI tools, it could spread across the organisation."

Still, how executives' code is treated in the review process has been pointed out as another issue. Rahul, the CEO of Julius AI, asked, "Approving changes is easy, but can you say they need fixes?" Google engineer Nick also satirised this, pointing out that feedback on a boss's code can be influenced by power relationships within an organisation.

Some say the case both shows that AI tools are lowering barriers to development and drawing executives back into writing code, while also raising questions about how consistently a code-quality-first culture actually operates within technical organisations.