\n<\/p>\n
Audio-enabled traffic control crosswalk buttons across Silicon Valley were hacked over the weekend to include audio snippets imitating the voices of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Videos<\/a> taken<\/a> by locals<\/a> in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and Redwood City in California show the crosswalk buttons were playing AI-generated speech designed to sound like the two billionaires.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every facet of your conscious experience,\u201d said one crosswalk button, which was hacked to sound like Zuckerberg. \u201cI just want to assure you, you don\u2019t need to worry because there\u2019s absolutely nothing you can do to stop it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n One crosswalk button that was hacked to sound like Musk said: \u201cI guess they say money can\u2019t buy happiness\u2026 I guess that\u2019s true. God knows I\u2019ve tried. But it can buy a Cybertruck and that\u2019s pretty sick, right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cF\u2014k, I\u2019m so alone,\u201d the Musk voice adds.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear why the sidewalk buttons were hacked, or by whom, but signs point to possible hacktivism<\/a>.<\/p>\n Palo Alto Online, one of the first outlets to report<\/a> the hack, cited a Redwood City official as saying the city was \u201cactively working to investigate and resolve the issue as quickly as possible.\u201d According to the outlet, the tampering may have happened on Friday.<\/p>\n Audio-enabled crosswalk buttons are widely used across the United States to allow those with visual impairments or accessibility needs to hear custom audio messages that play for pedestrians to know when it is safe to cross a street.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a video from 2024<\/a>, physical penetration specialist and security researcher Deviant Ollam<\/a> explains how audio-enabled crosswalk buttons can be manipulated often by way of default-set passwords that have not been changed.<\/p>\n Polara, the company that makes the audio-enabled crosswalk buttons, did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by TechCrunch on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n