Techmeme
March 4, 2023, 8:10 PM

Top News

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Bing Chat appears to have a hidden Celebrity mode, in which the chatbot answers questions while impersonating Biden, Trump, Tom Cruise, and other famous people  —  A secret Bing Chat ‘Celebrity’ mode allows users to instruct the AI to impersonate celebrities, answering questions and talking like the person it imitates.
Alex Cranz / The Verge:
Meta is good at making VR hardware but is ignoring its core gamer audience, as it's not clear the company realizes that games are driving its VR business  —  Meta seems very committed to making hardware to usher in a whole new world and racing away from the games that drive its VR business.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: in an update to investors, Twitter reports a ~40% YoY decline in both revenue and adjusted earnings for December 2022, as advertisers fled the platform  —  The company recently made a first interest payment to banks that lent $13 billion to help pay for Elon Musk's buyout, people familiar with the matter said
Erin Woo / The Information:
Alberto Nardelli / Bloomberg:
Source: Russia is circumventing sanctions by importing advanced chips through countries such as Turkey and the UAE; shipments from China to Russia have surged  —  Russia looks to be successfully working around European Union and Group of Seven sanctions to secure crucial semiconductors …
Andrew Duehren / Wall Street Journal:
Reports and sources: the US prepares a program that could ban US investment in some sectors in China, such as advanced semiconductors, quantum computing, and AI  —  Biden administration expected to seek money in its budget next week to set up program regulating investment abroad
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman quits OpenAI's nonprofit board, seeking to invest in companies using OpenAI's tech, which he says may cause a conflict of interest  —  - LinkedIn founder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman is leaving the nonprofit board of OpenAI, he announced in a post on Friday.
Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
Q&A with OpenAI's Sandhini Agarwal, Liam Fedus, Jan Leike, and co-founder John Schulman on training ChatGPT, dealing with its virality, fixing issues, and more  —  Exclusive conversations that take us behind the scenes of a cultural phenomenon.  —  When OpenAI launched ChatGPT …
Noah Bierman / Los Angeles Times:
San Jose-based Vintra markets its “co-appearance” AI, which seeks to detect when people caught on video are likely associates, to the IRS and police departments  —  A gray-haired man walks through an office lobby holding a coffee cup, staring ahead as he passes the entryway.
Kate Park / TechCrunch:
Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator Una Brands raised a $30M pre-Series C, following a $30M Series B in September 2022, bringing its total funding to $115M  —  Una Brands, a Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator, has raised $30 million in pre-Series C financing just five months after announcing …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Zoho Webinar: A look back at 2025  —  As 2025 comes to a close, it's the perfect time to look back at how Zoho Webinar has transformed the way businesses connect, engage, and grow.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Naughty Citizen', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Big Technology Podcast:
2025 In Review, 2026 Predictions — With Reed Albergotti
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Great Chat:
The stories we told ourselves in 2025
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:10 PM ET, March 4, 2023.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Financial Times:
Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg:
Forbes:

Earlier Picks

Aaron Tilley / Wall Street Journal:
CoinDesk:
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Erik Schatzker / Bloomberg: