This weekend saw a bizarre and hilarious hacking spree across California. Crosswalk buttons in Palo Alto, Redwood City, and Menlo Park were apparently compromised, delivering AI-generated voice clips of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg spouting surprisingly funny and slightly unsettling messages. The hacked buttons, typically used to assist visually impaired pedestrians, now offer an unexpected dose of Silicon Valley satire.
Videos circulating online show AI-cloned voices of both tech titans delivering lines ranging from Musk’s pleas for friendship (“Hi, I’m Elon. Can we be friends? I’ll give you a Cybertruck, I promise.”) to Zuckerberg’s boastful confessionals about “undermining democracy” and “cooking our grandparents’ brains with AI slop.” One particularly memorable clip even featured a Trump impersonator weighing in on Musk, adding an extra layer of absurdity to the whole situation.
City officials in Palo Alto confirmed the hack, stating that twelve downtown intersections were affected and that the voice features have been temporarily disabled pending repairs. Similar investigations are underway in Redwood City and Menlo Park. While the safety features of the crosswalks themselves remain functional, the addition of these AI-generated voices certainly adds an unexpected element to the pedestrian experience.
It’s unclear exactly how the hackers managed to infiltrate the systems, but the incident highlights the growing potential for AI-generated content to be used for both creative and disruptive purposes. The prank, while undeniably humorous, also raises questions about the security of public infrastructure and the ease with which AI-generated voices can be used to impersonate high-profile individuals.
The incident has already sparked a wave of online amusement, with many sharing the videos and speculating on the identity of the perpetrators. While the prank is likely intended as harmless fun, it serves as a reminder of the constantly evolving landscape of technology and the unexpected ways it can be used. It’s a great example of how even the most mundane aspects of daily life can become unexpectedly entertaining, thanks to a little bit of creative (and perhaps slightly mischievous) hacking.
