Engadget : Arts & Entertainment

Spotify is launching a new feature today called Exclude from your Taste Profile. As its name suggests, it lets you choose playlists — perhaps those played by a child or other family member — that you don’t want affecting your personalized recommendations.

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If the unofficial debut of Google’s Bard chatbot is any indication, misinformation is about to get a lot worse. The company posted an ad to Twitter this week showing off the natural-language AI model displaying false information about the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

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Hot Wheels: Rift Rally is a new mixed reality game from Velan Studios, the creators of Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. Like Nintendo’s 2020 title, you control a real RC car while your screen shows an augmented view from its cockpit. It will be available in March for PS5 / PS4 and iOS.

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A Minecraft mad scientist has recreated The Legend of Zelda inside the blocky sandbox game without any third-party mods or resource packs. Fan and YouTuber C1OUS3R, who has also made Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros. inside Minecraft, took nearly a month to craft the Zelda tribute.

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Twitch has banned “Nothing, Forever,” the AI-generated Seinfeld stream, for at least 14 days following a transphobic and homophobic outburst. It’s the latest example of “hate in, hate out” when AI chatbots are trained on offensive content without adequate moderation.

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YouTube Music workers in the Austin, TX area who voted to unionize are striking. The Alphabet Works Union-CWA (AWU-CWA), which represents the contractors, says this is the first time a group of Google-affiliated workers has gone on strike.

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Naughty Dog announced today that it’s delaying The Last of Us Part I for PC until March 28th. It will follow the game’s PS5 launch last year and roughly coincide with the wrap-up of season one of the HBO series.

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Starbucks Rewards members can now pay with Venmo. The payment service’s parent company, PayPal, announced the change today, saying customers can use Venmo accounts to load and auto-reload their Starbucks Card funds.

PayPal says you can add your Venmo account in the Starbucks app or the Starbucks Card section of the company’s website. Additionally, you can pay directly from Venmo after adding your account to the coffee chain’s app.

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Amazon told lawmakers it wouldn’t build storm shelters in its warehouses after a December 2021 tornado killed six employees at an Illinois location. Although the company changed its severe-weather response strategy after the incident, it essentially told the elected officials that since building storm shelters isn’t required by law, it won’t do that.