Someone managed to hack all the crosswalk buttons in Seattle, and then used AI to mimic Jeff Bezos voice, so when residents push the walk button, the billionaire shares a message.
This message:
This crosswalk is sponsored by Amazon Prime with an important message. You know, please don't tax the rich; 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 and then normal people could afford to live here again?
Clearly, the hack was performed by one of those lunatic "eat-the-rich" types.
But it's also relevant to some state legislation Washington is considering.
The timing aligns with recent discussions in the state legislature regarding a proposed tax increase on residents with financial assets exceeding $50 million.
The tax hike is meant to cover Washington's deficit, estimated to be between $6-$13.3 billion, which is a pretty wide spread of unknown fiscal responsibility.
Like, did we spend that money or not?
Of course, the hacking of the crosswalks isn't just a funny gag with a veiled threat to murder the rich.
It put other people's lives in immediate danger too.
‘The audio recordings at crosswalks play a critical role for people who are blind or have limited vision, helping them to cross streets safely,' SDOT said in a statement to ABC News. ‘We are concerned that someone would disregard people's safety to make a political statement. We take this matter seriously and have been working as fast as we can to respond to the situation. We are also working with our vendor to explore stronger security measures to prevent future hacking.'
And because it's Seattle, the police chimed in and said they couldn't be bothered to investigate who performed the hack.
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