Speak about a Prime goal.
Pedestrians on a number of Seattle streets have been in for a shock final week after they pressed crosswalk buttons and weren’t instructed the standard “stroll” or “wait” command — however as a substitute appeared to listen to Jeff Bezos imploring them to not tax the wealthy.
At the very least six crosswalks throughout the Washington metropolis seemed to be hacked with the messages, which appeared to make use of AI-generated deepfakes to impersonate the voice of the Amazon tycoon and former richest particular person on Earth.
“Hello, it’s Jeff Bezos. This crosswalk is sponsored by Amazon Prime with an essential message. You understand, please, please don’t tax the wealthy,” the audio system stated.
“In any other case, all the opposite billionaires will transfer to Florida, too. Wouldn’t it’s horrible if all of the wealthy individuals left Seattle or obtained Luigi-ed — then regular individuals may afford to dwell right here once more,” it concluded, referring to the homicide of United Healthcare’s CEO allegedly dedicated by Luigi Mangione.
It stays unclear how the crosswalk alerts have been hacked or by whom. It’s additionally unknown if the recordings had any objective past lampooning Bezos, however native station KUOW urged they may very well be in response to the native Seattle tech business’s opposition to not too long ago proposed wealth taxes.
By Friday, Seattle Division of Transportation stated it had returned the crosswalks to their regular perform — and characterised the stunt as irresponsible and harmful.
“The audio recordings at crosswalks play a crucial function for people who find themselves blind or have restricted imaginative and prescient, serving to them to cross streets safely,” a spokesperson from the division instructed KUOW.
“We’re involved that somebody would disregard the protection of individuals to make a political assertion.”
But it surely was simply the most recent such incident to hit a West Coast tech hub.
Earlier in April, crosswalks throughout Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Redwood Metropolis in Silicon Valley started broadcasting deprecating recordings that seemed like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
“You understand it’s humorous, I used to assume he was simply this dumb sack of s**t,” a generated Musk voice stated when cross buttons have been pushed. “However, nicely, while you get to know him, he’s really actually candy and tender and loving.”
“Sweetie, come again to mattress,” a President Trump-sounding voice then stated.
Menlo Park pedestrians, in the meantime, have been greeted by a pretend Zuckerberg.
“Hello, that is Mark Zuckerberg, however actual ones name me the Zuck,” the recording stated, in line with the LA Occasions.
“You understand, it’s regular to really feel uncomfortable and even violated as we forcefully insert AI into each aspect of your aware expertise, and I simply need to guarantee you, you don’t want to fret, as a result of there’s completely nothing you are able to do to cease it. Anyway, see ya.”
It’s unclear if there was any connection between the Seattle incident and the Silicon Valley recordings.
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