Mastodawn

Mastodon Migration Apr 13, 2025

News: Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons apparently hacked to imitate Musk, Zuckerberg voices

https://www.rwcpulse.com/technology/2025/04/12/silicon-valley-crosswalk-buttons-apparently-hacked-to-imitate-musk-zuckerberg-voices/

"In one video, taken on Saturday morning... in Redwood City, a voice claiming to be Zuckerberg says that “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.”

Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons apparently hacked to imitate Musk, Zuckerberg voices

Crosswalk buttons along the mid-Peninsula appear to have been hacked, so that when pressed, voices professing to be Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk begin speaking.

Redwood City Pulse

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Kagan MacTane (he/him)Apr 13, 2025

@mastodonmigration I have two quick reactions after watching the videos in the article:

1) This is fucking fabulous and I love whoever did this.

2) Interesting how both Palo Alto and Redwood City have taken immediate, decisive action to shut these things down. I wonder if they're even half as efficient at remediating things like potholes, blocked bicycle lanes, or suchlike.

I mean, surely they don't give billionaires special, priority treatment, right?

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Bill Zaumen Apr 13, 2025

@kagan @mastodonmigration They should shut these things down and fix the security issue. While I thought what the pranksters actually did was a really funny and harmless prank, playing with traffic control devices could result in an accident and could be done maliciously.

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Bill Zaumen

@kagan @mastodonmigration I really do know about playing with traffic-control devices. When I was 4 or 5 years old, my mom and I would walk by a box that a police officer used to change the signals. One time the officer was away from the box. I ran up to it to see how far I could turn a lever, with no clue as to what it did. The signals probably changed like crazy as I moved the lever back & forth. Not too many seconds later, an adult showed up to stop me. I was too young to get in trouble.