Last week, hackers took over the crosswalk buttons of downtown intersections in Palo Alto, Redwood City, and Menlo Park in California, to play seemingly AI-generated clips of Elon Musk's voice.
As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, the satirical clips mock the billionaires in a number of creative ways, as seen in videos going viral on social media.
While the perpetrator — or perpetrators — have yet to come forward, the hack highlights growing disillusionment and anger aimed at ultra-wealthy tech oligarchs who have accumulated huge amounts of influence and power.
Anti-Musk sentiment, in particular, has surged as of late, with his embrace of far-right extremism and dismantling of federal agencies spawning a major protest movement across the country.
One crosswalk voice clip relentlessly skewers Musk's close — but possibly unraveling — relationship with president Donald Trump.
"You know, it’s funny, I used to think he was just this dumb sack of sh*t," Musk's cloned voice says in a video shared on TikTok. "But once you get to know him, he’s actually pretty sweet and tender and loving."
"Sweetie, come back to bed," a second voice mimicking Trump's replies.
A different clip paints Musk as a lonely billionaire who struggles to maintain friendships and is desperate for attention.
"Hi, I’m Elon Musk," the crosswalk button says in a separate video. "Welcome to Palo Alto, the home of Tesla engineering. 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?"
"Fuck, I’m so alone," the Musk-alike added, heartbroken, garnering a major guffaw from the person who hit the button in the video.
"Will you be my friend? I’ll give you a Cybertruck, I promise," the fake Musk begged in a separate clip. "Okay, look, you don’t know the level of depravity I would stoop to just for a crumb of approval."
It's still unclear who's behind the stunt and how they exploited the crosswalks to play these messages, and City officials are investigating. A spokesperson for Palo Alto told Palo Alto Online that the voice feature was disabled until they could fix the issue.
But the damage has already been done, with users on Bluesky calling the stunt "hilarious" and "next level."
"I am sending all of my love to whoever hacked these crosswalk boxes with the Elon voice," one user wrote.
Given previous statements, there could be a degree of truth to the brutal satire.
"There are times when I feel lonely, yes," the SpaceX CEO said during a 2022 interview with Business Insider. "I'm working on the Starship rocket and I'm just staying in my little house by myself, especially if my dog is not with me, then I feel quite lonely because I'm just in a little house by myself with no dog."
Experts have suggested that growing up with an emotionally abusive father, among other instances of childhood trauma, caused him to become increasingly isolated.
The billionaire has also made plenty of enemies over the years, including his ex Claire "Grimes" Boucher, with whom he's had an on-and-off-again relationship for quite some time now, culminating in a nasty custody battle.
Meanwhile, Musk has played the victim card, claiming that he has no idea why he's become a major target of hate lately.
"My companies make great products that people love and I’ve never physically hurt anyone," Musk complained in a tweet last month. "So why the hate and violence against me?"
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The post Someone Is Hacking Crosswalk Buttons to Speak in the Voice of Elon Musk Lamenting the Terrible Sadness in His Life appeared first on Futurism.
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Someone Is Hacking Crosswalk Buttons to Speak in the Voice of Elon Musk Lamenting the Terrible Sadness in His Life
