In several California cities, crosswalk buttons have reportedly been hacked to play AI-generated voices mimicking Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Videos show Musk pleading for friendship while Zuckerberg boasts about negatively impacting democracy. City officials have confirmed that 12 intersections in Palo Alto have been affected, leading to the temporary disabling of the feature. Similar hacking incidents are being investigated in Redwood City and Menlo Park, although it remains unclear if the altered voices disrupt the intended safety messages for visually impaired individuals.
In videos posted online, the apparent voice of Musk begs listeners to be his friend, or that of Zuckerberg brags about "undermining democracy".
City employees determined that 12 downtown intersections were impacted, and have disabled the crosswalks' voice features pending repairs.
The crosswalk voice features are used to guide people with difficulty seeing, letting them know when to 'wait' and when the walk sign has turned on.
The hack seemed to have taken place on Friday, with similar issues reported in Redwood City and Menlo Park.
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