On three separate occasions I asked ChatGPT what it knew about LinkNYC. It got several facts wrong but presented a typically convincing-sounding mishmash of accuracy and lies. Even I wanted to believe the bullshit.

It didn’t occur to me right away, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to see what AI thought it knew about my little prank from 2018, in which I blasted the Mr. Softee jingle and other obnoxious sounds out of the kiosks’ loudspeakers.

The prank is pretty well-documented, though I myself made no particular effort to establish a name for myself on account of it. It never made Wikipedia (shameful omission!). The prank was fun and funny, intended mostly as a joke, but I feel it made the more-or-less point that LinkNYC is a poorly-designed, poorly-planned, barely-tested piece of street furniture foisted upon us with little oversight from the City and with virtually no input solicited from the public.

That said, it’s interesting to see what AI thinks the Mr. Softee thing was all about.

When I first asked “Who was responsible for the LinkNYC Mr. Softee prank?” this is what happened:

In 2016, a group of hackers known as “Markovian Parallax Denigrate” (MPD) claimed responsibility for the LinkNYC Mr. Softee prank. The prank involved hacking into LinkNYC’s public Wi-Fi kiosks in New York City and replacing the advertising content with a fake Mr. Softee ice cream ad that contained a hidden message.

The message was a cryptic poem that referenced the 1980s sci-fi novel “Neuromancer” by William Gibson, as well as various hacker-related themes. The prank received widespread media coverage and sparked a debate about the security of public Wi-Fi networks.

MPD was a group of hackers that operated between 2014 and 2017 and was known for targeting high-profile websites and organizations. The group’s name was derived from a concept in the science fiction novel “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson.

Wow, hadn’t heard about the MPD in a long time. The Markovian Parallax Denigrate is a name given to a series of hundreds of nonsense posting to Usenet in 1996. It had nothing to do with LinkNYC, and the prank did not involve “replacing the advertising content with a fake Mr. Softee ice cream ad that contained a hidden message.”

There is not a single fact in this response to my question, save for the bit about “widespread media coverage”.

Seriously, though, how could the Markovian Parallax Denigrate even enter into this discussion?

I tried again:

The individuals or group responsible for the LinkNYC Mr. Softee prank have not been publicly identified. The prank involved the installation of unauthorized software on multiple LinkNYC kiosks, which disrupted their normal operation and displayed the Mr. Softee logo on the digital displays. The incident prompted LinkNYC to temporarily shut down the affected kiosks and take measures to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

LinkNYC worked with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and other law enforcement agencies to investigate the incident and identify those responsible. However, it is not clear if anyone has been arrested or charged in connection with the prank.

It’s important to note that unauthorized access or modification of computer systems is illegal and can have serious consequences. It is always best to use technology in a responsible and ethical manner and to follow established rules and guidelines for its use.

If the LinkNYC peeps actually summoned the NYPD to respond to this then I would have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. Way to go AI but no way, law enforcement was never brought into the picture.

I will add, though, that I know a number of people who warned me to stop doing this stuff or I’d get arrested. For what? Making a phone call? For using the kiosks’ phone calling feature exactly as it was designed?

One last try:

The LinkNYC Mr. Softee prank was a viral internet prank that took place in New York City in 2017. LinkNYC is a network of kiosks that offer free Wi-Fi, phone calls, and charging stations throughout the city. The prank involved the reprogramming of some of these kiosks to play the jingle of Mr. Softee, a popular ice cream truck brand, instead of their usual notification sounds.

The prank was first noticed on Twitter when a user posted a video of a LinkNYC kiosk playing the Mr. Softee jingle. Soon after, other users began sharing similar videos, and the prank quickly went viral. The pranksters had apparently hacked into the kiosks’ software and changed the sound files that play when someone connects to the Wi-Fi or charges their phone.

The prank was widely shared and covered by local media outlets, with some people finding it humorous and others expressing concern about the security of the LinkNYC system. The pranksters themselves remained anonymous, and it is not known if anyone was ever caught or charged in connection with the incident.

Not a bad summary, save for getting the wrong year and a few other mistakes. I never “hacked into the kiosks’ software” and as far as I can recall LinkNYC has no “sound files that play when someone connects to the Wi-Fi or charges their phone.”

What puzzles me is how stubbornly this bot believes the perpetrator of this nonsense was never identified.

I asked it one last question: “What other ways has LinkNYC been hacked?” Here is some masterful history rewrite for you:

1. Pornographic content: In 2016, just months after LinkNYC launched, people began using the kiosks to access and display pornographic content. The issue was quickly addressed by LinkNYC and the pornographic sites were blocked.

2. Malware: In 2017, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab discovered a malware campaign that was targeting LinkNYC kiosks. The malware, called Mokes, was designed to steal sensitive information from the kiosks and its users. LinkNYC took measures to address the issue and prevent further attacks.

3. Bitcoin mining: In 2018, a Reddit user claimed to have hacked into LinkNYC kiosks and used them to mine bitcoin. The user posted a photo of a kiosk displaying a message that read “Mining cryptocurrency. This kiosk is in safe mode.” LinkNYC denied that the kiosks had been hacked and said that the message was a hoax.

4. Unauthorized access: In 2020, a man was arrested for allegedly using a crowbar to break into a LinkNYC kiosk in Brooklyn. The man was accused of stealing electronics and other equipment from the kiosk.

Good call on getting the year of the porn problem correct but there is no way LinkNYC could be said to have “quickly addressed” the issue. Porn flowed from the kiosks for something like 8 or 9 months before CityBridge finally crippled the web browser to where it only gets to selected sites.

I followed LinkNYC like a hawk for most of its first 5 or 6 years and I never heard anything about a Mokes malware getting into the machines. That would absolutely have made headlines.

I also have no memory of anyone claiming to have used the Link kiosks to mine for crypto. Even if it was a hoax it would have made headlines or seen social media mentions.

I have no idea if the crowbar story has any basis but I followed LinkNYC quite avidly for some years and never heard of anything like this. There was the infamous incident in which one man threw heavy rocks at dozens of the kiosks, destroying the advertising panels and causing an estimated half-million dollars in damage. Maybe “large language” thought it could get away with rewriting history by paraphrasing accounts of that incident?

GPT also missed an opportunity to mention another lesser-known prank which involved suiting up one of the machines in a Teletubby outfit. Did anyone ever take credit for that?

The good news is that I finally got off the waitlist for AI-powered Bing and this sucker brings up an answer much closer to reality, though still influenced by misinformation, this time from me!

According to web sources, the prankster behind the Mister Softee jingle on LinkNYC kiosks was Mark Thomas, a hacker who tried to manipulate phone systems. He used a fake ice cream ad with a hidden poem that referenced a sci-fi novel and hacker culture. The prank started in May 2018 and lasted for several months. Learn more: 1. kioskmarketplace.com 2. gothamist.com 3. wsbj.com 4. atlasobscura.com 5. gothamist.com