California cities are trying to figure out how fake voices mocking Musk and Zuckerberg were added to crosswalks

• Fake voices of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg were heard at crosswalks in California in recent days.
• Several California crosswalks were hacked to mock the Tesla and Meta CEOs in their own AI-generated voices.
• Palo Alto officials disabled the voice feature after discovering the issue, a spokesperson told BI.

City officials are trying to figure out how AI-generated voices of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg ended up on their crosswalks.

Instead of hearing the standard "Walk sign is on" at some crosswalks, residents in three techie cities in California heard what appeared to be hacked messages mocking Musk and Zuckerberg in the CEOs' own AI-generated voices.

According to local reports, the incidents happened at crosswalks in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Redwood City, impacting a feature intended to help visually impaired people know when to cross the street.

City of Palo Alto spokesperson Meghan Horrigan-Taylor told Business Insider that a city employee noticed on Saturday morning that the voice announcement feature at one crosswalk was malfunctioning and it was later determined that 12 additional crosswalks had the same issue.

The apparent hack may have taken place Friday, she added, and the crosswalks' voice announcement feature has been disabled until it can be repaired.

"Other traffic signals in the City were checked and the impact is isolated," Horrigan-Taylor said. "Signal operations are otherwise unaffected, and motorists are reminded to always exercise caution around pedestrians."

According to Palo Alto Online, Redwood City deputy city manager Jennifer Yamaguma said Saturday night that "staff are actively working to investigate and resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

Pedestrians posted videos of the hacked crosswalk messages on social media.

In one video, Musk's AI-generated voice says, "You know, they say money can't buy happiness, and yeah, okay, I guess that's true. God knows I've tried. But it can buy a Cybertruck, and that's pretty sick, right? Right?" The voice then curses and mentions being "so alone."

In another, AI-generated Musk says, "Hi, I'm Elon. Can we be friends? Will you be my friend? I'll give you a Cybertruck, I promise. Okay, look, you don't know the level of depravity I would stoop to just for a crumb of approval."

A third clip includes the fake Musk voice talking about his evolving opinion of an unnamed person. Then, an AI-generated voice of President Donald Trump says "Sweetie, come back to bed." Musk was a big financial backer of Trump's campaign and has become a close ally and de facto head of DOGE since the president's return to the White House.

Tesla has global engineering and AI offices in Palo Alto. Meta is headquartered in Menlo Park. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Zuckerberg's philanthropic organization with his wife, Priscilla Chan, is based in Redwood City, which was also the site of a Tesla Cybertruck vandalization incident in January.

Meta, Tesla, and city representatives of Menlo Park and Redwood City did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

In one video showing an AI Mark Zuckerberg voice at a crosswalk, the synthetic voice can heard saying, "Hey, it's Zuck here. 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. Zuck out!"

As part of sweeping changes earlier this year, Meta also updated its hateful conduct policy to now allow "allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like 'weird.'"

A second clip features the AI Zuckerberg voice saying, "Hi, this is Mark Zuckerberg, but real ones call me The Zuck. You know, 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. Anyway, see ya."

Musk and Zuckerberg have been no strangers to criticism over the years, but their moves in the last year to ingratiate themselves with Trump, such as donating to his inauguration or sitting on the dais at his swearing-in, have sparked renewed criticism from many on the left.

Tesla Takedown protests around the country and in Europe have seen people protesting outside of Tesla dealerships, and there's been a rise in Cybertruck vandalizations in recent months and attacks on Tesla dealerships, which Trump said should be labeled as "domestic terrorism."

Zuckerberg dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last year and Meta was one of the first companies to donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund last year. This year, the company eliminated its third-party fact-checking system in favor of community notes, like the one on Musk's platform X, formerly Twitter, in a move widely seen as one that those on the right would view favorably.

Zuckerberg and Musk were among the tech billionaires who attended Trump's inauguration, seated ahead of many of Trump's own cabinet appointees.

As of Monday afternoon, city officials have not commented on how the crosswalks were altered to play the AI CEO voices. No suspects have been named.