‘Please dont tax the rich’: Seattle crosswalk buttons hacked to sound like Jeff Bezos [Video]

SEATTLE — Pedestrians who pushed the crosswalk buttons at several Seattle intersections Wednesday heard a different voice over the speaker than what they may be used to: an AI-generated imitation of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

The voice said, “Hi. I’m Jeff Bezos. This crosswalk is sponsored by Amazon Prime, with an important message. Ya know? Please, 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’d — and then the normal people could afford to live here again?”

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) said Wednesday they had been responding to hacked crosswalk push buttons in several locations, “which were altered to play fake audio messages.” They …