"I’m so alone": Someone is hacking crosswalks to sound like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg

Videos circulating online reportedly show crosswalks in Silicon Valley that were hacked to sound like the voices of tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. 

What messages are pedestrians hearing at the crosswalks?

Local perspective:

Video footage by Bulou Varanisese posted on Instagram displays a crosswalk in Palo Alto, California broadcasting an Elon Musk impression. 

"Hi, this is Elon Musk, welcome to Palo Alto, the home of Tesla engineering," the voice says. "You know, they say money can’t buy happiness and…I guess that’s true. God knows I’ve tried. But it can buy a Cybertruck and that’s pretty sick right? F*** I’m so alone."

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Storyful noted that another video from Palo Alto shows a crosswalk manipulated to sound like Mark Zuckerberg.

"It’s normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every facet of your conscious experience," a voice says. "And I just want to assure you, you don’t need to worry because there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop it."

California residents react to crosswalks being hacked

The other side:

FOX 2 San Francisco reporter Betty Yu spoke to local residents to get their thoughts on the hacks. 

"It’s just so disorienting - it is very cool protest art. I have no idea how they did it or got into the system," said Amber Levine, a resident in Redwood City.

"I thought it was funny. I don’t condone hacking public services to have a humorous message... but I laughed about it," added Calvin McDonald, another Redwood City resident.

"I think it speaks to how the public should be more aware of what’s going on with AI and the consequences of our data ending up in centralized databases - especially when the government isn't necessarily under the democratic control that we'd hope to see. I don't mean the party, I mean the form government that we all subscribe to," said Nik Evitt, who works in Redwood City.

How many crosswalks were hacked?

What we know:

The Los Angeles Times reported that officials in Redwood City identified four locations with hacked crosswalk signals, while Menlo Park, California Department of Transportation officials told the news outlet that they were holding discussions with the city to investigate a hacked crosswalk near the Meta campus.

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Meanwhile, a City of Palo Alto spokesperson told the social news platform Storyful that a city employee shared that the voice announcement feature of a crosswalk at an intersection "was not functioning properly."

The spokesperson explained to Storyful, "It was later determined that 12 downtown intersections were similarly malfunctioning, and that tampering may have occurred on Friday."

What we don't know:

The individuals behind the hacking of the crosswalks are currently unknown as officials in the California cities conduct investigations.