‘They say money can’t buy happiness … God knows I’ve tried.’
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Multiple crosswalk buttons in California were reportedly hacked over the weekend to play AI-generated voices of billionaire tech moguls Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
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In videos posted across social media, crosswalks in Silicon Valley cities such as Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Redwood City, the voices of the two figures could be heard.
In one such clip, a crosswalk button, which is normally used to aid the visually impaired, posed as a lonely Musk eager to make friends.
“Hi, I’m Elon. Can we be friends? Will you be my friend? I’ll give you a Cybertruck, I promise,” the voice said. “You don’t know the level of depravity I would stoop to just for a crumb of approval.”
Another audio recording captured in the area similarly portrayed Musk as desperate for praise.
“Hi, this is Elon Musk. Welcome to Palo Alto, the home of Tesla engineering,” the voice said. “You know, they say money can’t buy happiness, and yeah, okay, I guess that’s true. God knows I’ve tried. But it can buy a Cybertruck, and that’s pretty sick, right? Right? Fuck, I’m so alone.”
But it wasn’t just Musk who was targeted. The Meta CEO’s voice was also imitated at crosswalks.
“Hi, this is Mark Zuckerberg, but real ones call me ‘the Zuck,’” another recording said. “You know, it’s normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every, every facet of your conscious experience. And I just want to assure you, you don’t need to worry, because there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. Anyway, see ya.”
Another example shows the AI-generated Zuckerberg boasting of Meta’s legacy and “everything we’ve been building together.”
“From undermining democracy, to cooking our grandparents’ brains with AI slop, to making the world less safe for trans people, nobody does it better than us—and I think that’s pretty neat,” the voice adds.
City of Palo Alto spokesperson Meghan Horrigan-Taylor, according to Palo Alto Online, said that 12 downtown intersections in total were affected by the apparent hack. The voice function, Horrigan-Taylor added, was disabled for repairs on Saturday.
Investigations are also underway in Redwood City and Menlo Park. No suspects have been named at this time.
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