Talk about a Prime target.
Pedestrians on several Seattle streets were in for a surprise last week when they pressed crosswalk buttons and weren’t told the usual “walk” or “wait” command — but instead appeared to hear Jeff Bezos imploring them not to tax the rich.
At least six crosswalks across the Washington city appeared to be hacked with the messages, which seemed to use AI-generated deepfakes to impersonate the voice of the Amazon tycoon and former richest person on Earth.
“Hi, it’s Jeff Bezos. This crosswalk is sponsored by Amazon Prime with an important message. You know, please, please don’t tax the rich,” the speakers said.
“Otherwise, all the other billionaires will move to Florida, too. Wouldn’t it be terrible if all the rich people left Seattle or got Luigi-ed — then normal people could afford to live here again,” it concluded, referring to the murder of United Healthcare’s CEO allegedly committed by Luigi Mangione.
It remains unclear how the crosswalk signals were hacked or by whom. It’s also unknown if the recordings had any purpose beyond lampooning Bezos, but local station KUOW suggested they could be in response to the local Seattle tech industry’s opposition to recently proposed wealth taxes.
By Friday, Seattle Department of Transportation said it had returned the crosswalks to their normal function — and characterized the stunt as irresponsible and dangerous.
“The audio recordings at crosswalks play a critical role for people who are blind or have limited vision, helping them to cross streets safely,” a spokesperson from the department told KUOW.
“We are concerned that someone would disregard the safety of people to make a political statement.”
But it was just the latest such incident to hit a West Coast tech hub.
Earlier in April, crosswalks across Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Redwood City in Silicon Valley began broadcasting deprecating recordings that sounded like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
“You know it’s funny, I used to think he was just this dumb sack of s**t,” a generated Musk voice said when cross buttons were pushed. “But, well, when you get to know him, he’s actually really sweet and tender and loving.”
“Sweetie, come back to bed,” a President Trump-sounding voice then said.
Menlo Park pedestrians, meanwhile, were greeted by a fake Zuckerberg.
“Hi, this is Mark Zuckerberg, but real ones call me the Zuck,” the recording said, according to the LA Times.
“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.”
It is unclear if there was any connection between the Seattle incident and the Silicon Valley recordings.