Nelson Morales

Silicon Valley crosswalks hacked to mock Musk, Zuckerberg

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

SAN FRANCISCO, United States -- Pedestrian crosswalks in California&#x27;s Silicon Valley were emitting recordings over the weekend that mocked US President Donald Trump and tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, according to widely shared videos.Instead of the usual &quot;walk&quot; or &quot;wait&quot; audio instructions, crosswalk speakers at some intersections in Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Redwood City played recordings that sounded like the tech titans.&quot;You know, they say money can&#x27;t buy happiness, and... I guess that&#x27;s true,&quot; the crosswalk audio says in one video posted over the weekend on TikTok, Meta-owned Instagram and Musk&#x27;s social platform X.&quot;God knows I&#x27;ve tried. But it can buy a Cybertruck and that&#x27;s pretty sick, right? Right? ... I&#x27;m so alone.&quot;In another widely circulating video, a Musk-sounding voice emerges from the crosswalk signal and talks about Trump.&quot;You know it&#x27;s funny, I used to think he was just this dumb sack of shit. But, well, when you get to know him, he&#x27;s actually really sweet and tender and loving.&quot;A voice resembling Trump&#x27;s replies: &quot;Sweetie, come back to bed.&quot;Meta CEO Zuckerberg was not spared. In another video viewed more than 400,000 times on X, a crosswalk sign appears to emit the audio: &quot;Hi, this is Mark Zuckerberg, but real ones call me &#x27;The Zuck.&#x27; It&#x27;s normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every ... facet of your conscious experience.&quot;And I just want to assure you, you don&#x27;t need to worry because there&#x27;s absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. Anyways, see ya.&quot;It was not clear who was behind the messages playing at the crosswalks, which returned to normal by Monday, according to the Los Angeles Times.Palo Alto City spokesperson Meghan Horrigan-Taylor told US media that 12 downtown intersections were impacted and authorities had disabled the audio feature until it could be repaired.The tampering may have happened on Friday, Horrigan-Taylor said, according to Palo Alto Online.City official Jennifer Yamaguma told the San Francisco Chronicle that four crosswalks in Redwood City were impacted.&quot;The unauthorized messages have since been disabled, and staff are evaluating ways to strengthen system protections,&quot; Deputy City Manager Yamaguma said.&quot;We also want to remind the public that tampering with City infrastructure, including crosswalk signals, is unlawful and poses a safety risk.&quot;

In a widely circulating video, a Musk-sounding voice emerges from the crosswalk signal and talks about Trump.

In a widely circulating video, a Musk-sounding voice emerges from the crosswalk signal and talks about Trump.