Silicon Valley Crosswalks Hacked: Satirical Messages from Musk and Zuckerberg Impersonators Leave Residents Scratching Their Heads

Citizens from several Silicon Valley communities have been capturing videos of crosswalk buttons that appear to have been hacked in an unusual way. Rather than the usual messages warning about traffic safety, the buttons instead seem to play satirical messages from Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg soundalikes.

One Zuckerberg-a-like infected crosswalk reportedly told would-be traffic crossers "it’s normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into 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."

Another, this time impersonating the vocal stylings of one Elon Musk, appears to say "Okay, look, you don't know the level of depravity I would stoop to just for a crumb of approval."

Identified Vulnerabilities and Disabled Voice Announcement Feature

Local news outlet Palo Alto Online reports that city employees have identified 12 downtown intersections that appear to have been tampered with, and have disabled the voice announcement feature until "repairs can be made." In Menlo Park, where Meta's global headquarters is located, another crosswalk button played a message from someone identifying themselves as "Zuck," who goes on to say: "I just wanted 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 making the world less safe for trans people, nobody does it better than us. And I think that's pretty neat."

A local resident reports that some of the impacted buttons were no longer playing the messages on Saturday morning.

Cities Work to Identify Causes and Find Fixes

Officials from Menlo Park and Redwood City have also confirmed they are aware of the hacks, and are working on a fix. According to City of Palo Alto spokesperson Meghan Horrigan Taylor: "Other traffic signals in the city were checked and the impact is isolated. Signal operations are otherwise unaffected, and motorists are reminded to always exercise caution around pedestrians."

For now, it appears no hacking group has claimed responsibility for the amus… I mean, public-safety-endangering messages, nor is it clear how each of the traffic signals were compromised.

A Puzzle to Solve Over the Weekend

Still, it seems to have given several video-submitting residents a chuckle, and city officials something of a puzzle to solve over the weekend.

PC Gamer is here to keep you up-to-date with the latest gaming news, reviews, and hardware deals. Follow us for more stories like this one!