Zuck Admits He Eroded Democracy While Musk Seeks Companionship at Breached Crosswalks | Carscoops

      City officials have not yet identified any suspects in connection with the hack.

      6 hours ago

      by Brad Anderson

      Crosswalk buttons in three California cities were compromised, featuring AI-generated voices that mocked billionaires.

      The messages included strange impersonations of Musk and Zuckerberg using synthesized voices.

      Authorities have turned off the hacked messages and are in the process of repairing the affected intersections.

      Public demonstrations against tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are not a new phenomenon. Posters, picket signs, and viral tweets have been quite common. Recently, however, someone with a specific grievance and a talent for inventive sabotage escalated the situation by hacking crosswalk buttons in several locations around Silicon Valley.

      Rather than emitting a standard chime, several crosswalk buttons in Palo Alto, Redwood City, and Menlo Park recited scripts with AI-generated voices mimicking Musk and Zuckerberg. While some messages were more playful, several were critical of the two billionaires.

      In one message, the crosswalk button states, “Hi, this is Elon Musk. Welcome to Palo Alto, home of Tesla engineering. They say money can’t buy happiness—sure, I guess that’s true; I've certainly tried. But it can buy a Cybertruck, which is pretty awesome, right?”

      Another recording further mocks Musk, saying, “Hi, I’m Elon. Can we be friends? Will you be my friend? I’ll give you a Cybertruck, I promise. Honestly, you have no idea how low I’d go for just a bit of approval. Let’s be real—I never had any moral convictions to begin with.” As reported by Palo Alto Online, another message imitating Musk claimed, “You know, people keep saying cancer is bad, but have you tried being cancer? It’s [explicit] awesome.”

      Other messages targeted Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta. One crosswalk in Menlo Park was hacked to say, “Hi, it’s Zuck here. I just wanted to express how very proud I am of everything we’ve accomplished together. From undermining democracy to overwhelming our grandparents’ brains with AI rubbish, to making the world less safe for trans people, no one does it better than us—and I think that’s pretty neat.”

      A spokesperson for the City of Palo Alto noted that the hack impacted 12 intersections. The changed messages were quickly deleted, and maintenance teams are actively working on restoring normal functionality. In Redwood City, officials identified four affected locations and have also disabled the “unauthorized messages.”

      There has been no update on who may be responsible for the hack or whether other appliances might soon join in on the protests.