Pedestrians in San Francisco’s South Bay area reportedly heard AI-generated messages in the voices of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg coming from hacked crosswalks after pressing buttons on the devices.
“Hi, this is Mark Zuckerberg, but real ones call me the Zuck,” a voice that sounded like Zuckerberg said from a crosswalk device, according to a video shared on Reddit.
“You know, it’s normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every facet of your conscious experience,” the Meta CEO’s AI clone continued. “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.”
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Another video posted to TikTok showed a crosswalk device releasing a voice that sounded like Musk.
“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, 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,” the Musk voice added.
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Palo Alto city spokesperson Meghan Horrigan-Taylor told SFGATE the crosswalks’ voice-over systems at multiple intersections in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Redwood City were hacked to play satirical audio clips impersonating the tech billionaires.
“The impact is isolated,” Horrigan-Taylor said. “Signal operations are otherwise unaffected, and motorists are reminded to always exercise caution around pedestrians.”
The first hacked crosswalk was reported at University Avenue and High Street in downtown Palo Alto by a city employee, Horrigan-Taylor told the outlet, adding that authorities later discovered at least 12 crosswalks at intersections in Palo Alto had been tampered with.
The hacked crosswalks have since been removed from their intersections while officials try to determine how the audio systems were breached, as well as the identities of the culprits.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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