Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons hacked to imitate Musk, Zuckerberg's voices
a year ago
- #AI
- #hacking
- #SiliconValley
- Audio-enabled traffic control crosswalk buttons in Silicon Valley were hacked to play AI-generated voices of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.
- The hacked crosswalk buttons played humorous and unsettling messages mimicking the billionaires' speech.
- The hack affected cities like Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and Redwood City, with officials investigating the issue.
- Possible hacktivism is suspected, but the perpetrators and motives remain unclear.
- Audio-enabled crosswalk buttons assist visually impaired pedestrians but are vulnerable to manipulation due to default passwords.
- Security researcher Deviant Ollam has previously demonstrated how these buttons can be hacked.
- Polara, the manufacturer of the buttons, did not respond to requests for comment.