Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons apparently hacked to imitate Musk, Zuck voices

Summary

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... A crosswalk button in Redwood City plays a voice professing to be Mark Zuckerberg on April 12. Courtesy Justin Ward. Crosswalk buttons along the mid-Peninsula were hacked last week so that when pressed, voices professing to be Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk began speaking. Videos taken at locations in Redwood City, Menlo Park and Palo Alto showed various messages that began to play when crosswalk buttons were hit. The voices appeared to imitate how Zuckerberg and Musk sound. In one video, taken on Saturday morning at the corner of Arguello Street, Broadway and Marshall Street in Redwood City, a voice claiming to be Zuckerberg says that “it’s normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into 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.” In another video, taken in downtown Palo Alto early on Saturday morning, a voice claiming to be Musk says that he would “like to personally welcome you to Palo Alto.” “You know, people keep saying cancer is bad, but have you tried being a cancer? It’s f—— awesome,” the voice goes on to say. A crosswalk button in Palo Alto plays a voice professing to be Elon Musk on April 12. Courtesy Cynthia Neuwalder. Another video from downtown Palo Alto shows a voice impersonating Musk saying that he would give the listener a Cybertruck if they became his friend. A crosswalk button in Menlo Park plays a voice professing to be Mark Zuckerberg on April 12. Courtesy Matthew Schluneker. “You don’t know the level of depravity I would stoop to just for a crumb of approval,” the voice says. “I mean, let’s be real, it’s not like I had any moral convictions to begin with.” Over in Menlo Park, a video taken near Meta’s headquarters shows a crosswalk signal with a voice identifying himself as “Zuck” stating how proud he is of “everything we’ve been building together.” “From undermini...