Crosswalk buttons in at the least three California cities seem to have been hacked this weekend to offer them the seemingly AI-generated voices of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In movies posted on-line, the obvious voice of Musk begs listeners to be his pal, or that of Zuckerberg brags about “undermining democracy” and “cooking our grandparents’ brains with AI slop.”
A Palo Alto, California metropolis spokesperson informed Palo Alto On-line that metropolis staff “decided that 12 downtown intersections had been impacted,” and have disabled the crosswalks’ voice options pending repairs. The alerts in any other case work as they need to, they informed the outlet. The hack appeared to have taken place on Friday, the particular person mentioned.
The identical factor is going on in Redwood Metropolis, the place a deputy metropolis supervisor informed The San Francisco Chronicle that the town is investigating and trying to resolve the problem there. Crosswalk buttons in Menlo Park are additionally reportedly affected.
The voice options of those buttons are used to information individuals with problem seeing, letting them know when to “wait” and when the stroll signal on the opposite finish of the road has turned on. It’s laborious to inform how a lot, if in any respect, the simulated voices intervene with that, however they appear to be taking part in along with, moderately than as an alternative of the built-in security notices, at the least in some movies of the phenomenon.
Listed here are some movies with the simulated voice of Musk, together with my transcriptions beneath every:
Hello, that is Elon Musk, and I’d prefer to personally welcome you to Palo Alto. You already know, individuals hold saying, ‘most cancers is dangerous,’ however have you ever ever tried being a most cancers? It’s fucking superior.
Hello, that is Elon Musk. Welcome to Palo Alto, the house of Tesla engineering. You already know, they are saying cash can’t purchase happiness, and yeah, okay, I assume that’s true. God is aware of I’ve tried. However it might purchase a Cybertruck, and that’s fairly sick, proper? Proper? Fuck, I’m so alone.
Hello, I’m Elon. Can we be buddies? Will you be my pal? I’ll provide you with a Cybertruck, I promise. Okay, look, you don’t know the extent of depravity I’d stoop to simply for a crumb of approval.
One had a visitor spot from a soundalike of President Donald Trump, clearly making mild of Musk’s shut affiliation with Trump:
Not Musk: You already know, it’s humorous, I used to assume he was simply this dumb sack of shit. However when you get to know him, he’s truly fairly candy and tender and loving.
Not Trump: Sweetie, come again to mattress.
One video printed by Palo Alto On-line featured this quote, spoken by a faked Zuckerberg’s voice:
Hey, it’s Zuck right here. I simply need to inform you how very proud I’m of every thing we’ve been constructing collectively. From undermining democracy to cooking our grandparents’ brains with AI slop, to — to creating the world much less secure for trans individuals. No person does it higher than us, and, uh, and I feel that’s fairly neat. Zuck out!
In any other case, the opposite simulated Zuckerberg voice messages I discovered in movies on-line all had the identical content material:
Hello, that is Mark Zuckerberg, however actual ones name me ‘the Zuck.’ You already know, it’s regular to really feel uncomfortable and even violated as we forcefully insert AI into each, each side of your acutely aware expertise. And I simply need to guarantee you, you don’t want to fret, as a result of there’s completely nothing you are able to do to cease it. Anyway, see ya.
