Apparent AI-cloned voices of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have been lampooning the tech CEOs in California crosswalks. The unusual phenomenon has been observed in at least three cities across the state.
Crosswalk buttons in these California cities appear to have been hacked this weekend to give them the seemingly AI-generated voices of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In videos posted online, the apparent voice of Musk begs listeners to be his friend, or that of Zuckerberg brags about “undermining democracy” and “cooking our grandparents’ brains with AI slop.” The hacked crosswalks have raised concerns about the potential impact on accessibility features designed for visually impaired individuals.
A Palo Alto, California city spokesperson told Palo Alto Online that city employees “determined that 12 downtown intersections were impacted,” and have disabled the crosswalks’ voice features pending repairs. The signals otherwise work as they should, they told the outlet. The hack seemed to have taken place on Friday, the person said. Similarly, the cities of Redwood City and Menlo Park have also reported being affected by the hack.
The voice features of these buttons are used to guide people with difficulty seeing, letting them know when to “wait” and when the walk sign on the other end of the street has turned on. It’s hard to tell how much, if at all, the simulated voices interfere with that, but they seem to be playing in addition to, rather than instead of the built-in safety notices, at least in some videos of the phenomenon.
The simulated voice of Musk made several satirical remarks. Some of the messages included: “Hi, this is Elon Musk, and I’d like to personally welcome you to Palo Alto. You know, people keep saying, ‘cancer is bad,’ but have you ever tried being a cancer? It’s fucking awesome.” Another message read: “Hi, this is Elon Musk. Welcome to Palo Alto, the home of Tesla engineering. You know, they say money can’t buy happiness, and yeah, okay, I guess that’s true. God knows I’ve tried. But it can buy a Cybertruck, and that’s pretty sick, right? Right? Fuck, I’m so alone.” Other messages from the Musk voice included: “Hi, I’m Elon. Can we be friends? Will you be my friend? I’ll give you a Cybertruck, I promise. Okay, look, you don’t know the level of depravity I would stoop to just for a crumb of approval.” One video even featured a guest spot from a soundalike of President Donald Trump, clearly making light of Musk’s close association with Trump: “Not Musk: You know, it’s funny, I used to think he was just this dumb sack of shit. But once you get to know him, he’s actually pretty sweet and tender and loving. Not Trump: Sweetie, come back to bed.”
The simulated Zuckerberg voice messages also made satirical remarks. One video published by Palo Alto Online featured this quote, spoken by a faked Zuckerberg’s voice: “Hey, it’s Zuck here. I just want to tell you how very proud I am of everything we’ve been building together. From undermining democracy to cooking our grandparents’ brains with AI slop, to — to making the world less safe for trans people. Nobody does it better than us, and, uh, and I think that’s pretty neat. Zuck out!” Other simulated Zuckerberg voice messages found in videos online had the same content: “Hi, this is Mark Zuckerberg, but real ones call me ‘the Zuck.’ You know, it’s normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every, 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. Anyway, see ya.”
