Crosswalk buttons in a minimum of 3 California towns seem to have been hacked this weekend to offer them the apparently AI-generated voices of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In movies posted on-line, the plain 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 town spokesperson informed Palo Alto On-line that town staff “made up our minds that 12 downtown intersections had been impacted,” and feature disabled the crosswalks’ voice options pending maintenance. The alerts differently paintings as they will have to, they informed the hole. The hack appeared to have taken position on Friday, the individual mentioned.The similar factor is occurring in Redwood Town, the place a deputy town supervisor informed The San Francisco Chronicle that town is investigating and making an attempt to get to the bottom of the problem there. Crosswalk buttons in Menlo Park also are reportedly affected.The voice options of those buttons are used to lead other people with issue seeing, permitting them to know when to “wait” and when the stroll signal at the different finish of the road has became on. It’s exhausting 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, somewhat than as an alternative of the integrated protection notices, a minimum of in some movies of the phenomenon.Listed here are some movies with the simulated voice of Musk, along side my transcriptions under each and every:Hello, that is Elon Musk, and I’d love to for my part welcome you to Palo Alto. You understand, other people stay pronouncing, ‘most cancers is unhealthy,’ however have you ever ever attempted being a most cancers? It’s fucking superior.Hello, that is Elon Musk. Welcome to Palo Alto, the house of Tesla engineering. You understand, they are saying cash can’t purchase happiness, and yeah, ok, I suppose that’s true. God is aware of I’ve attempted. However it may possibly purchase a Cybertruck, and that’s beautiful unwell, proper? Proper? Fuck, I’m so by myself.Hello, I’m Elon. Are we able to be pals? Will you be my pal? I’ll come up with a Cybertruck, I promise. K, glance, you don’t know the extent of depravity I’d hunch to simply for a crumb of approval.One had a visitor spot from a soundalike of President Donald Trump, obviously making mild of Musk’s shut affiliation with Trump:No longer Musk: You understand, it’s humorous, I used to suppose he was once simply this dumb sack of shit. However if you get to grasp him, he’s if truth be told beautiful candy and mushy and loving.No longer Trump: Sweetie, come again to mattress.One video printed by way of Palo Alto On-line featured this quote, spoken by way of a faked Zuckerberg’s voice:Hello, it’s Zuck right here. I simply need to let you know how very proud I’m of the whole lot we’ve been development in combination. From undermining democracy to cooking our grandparents’ brains with AI slop, to — to creating the sector much less protected for trans other people. No one does it higher than us, and, uh, and I feel that’s beautiful neat. Zuck out!In a different way, the opposite simulated Zuckerberg voice messages I discovered in movies on-line all had the similar content material:Hello, that is Mark Zuckerberg, however actual ones name me ‘the Zuck.’ You understand, it’s standard to really feel uncomfortable and even violated as we forcefully insert AI into each and every, each and every side of your mindful enjoy. And I simply need to guarantee you, you don’t want to fear, as a result of there’s completely not anything you’ll do to prevent it. Anyway, see ya.
