Technologies

Spoilers? Trolls? You can remove them from your Twitter feed. Here’s how

Muting words and phrases lets you avoid entire topics in your feed.

Terrified of spoilers for upcoming movies like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or The Batman? Need a break from people talking about COVID-19? Timeline suddenly hijacked by people talking about a news event you have absolutely zero interest in? Twitter‘s mute feature can solve all those problems — it’s just a bit buried in the app’s menus.

Twitter can be a great place to interact with friends, brands, celebrities and almost anyone imaginable. The price of admission? Those people are probably going to tweet things you don’t want to hear about.

Movies and TV show spoilers are a frustrating but mostly harmless risk. Reading tweets that include painful or potentially triggering content can have a negative impact on your mental well-being and is a bigger problem. An unfiltered Twitter feed leaves you vulnerable to both of these risks and many in between.

Fortunately, there’s a way to protect yourself. Twitter offers the option to mute terms, the same way you’d mute an account you don’t want to hear from.

According to Twitter’s description: «When you mute words, you won’t get any new notifications for Tweets that include them or see Tweets with those words in your timeline.»

Here’s how to cleanse your timeline of unwanted topics.

How to mute specific words on Twitter

1. Tap on your profile picture in the top left on a mobile device. Select More if you’re using a computer.

2. Select Settings and privacy

3. Choose Privacy and safety

4. Go to Mute and block

5. Tap Muted words. If you have any terms muted, they’ll display on the next menu.

6. On iOS, press the Add button in the bottom right. On Android, press the + symbol in the bottom right (upper right on a web browser).

7. At the top of the screen, enter the word or phrase you want to mute. If you want to mute multiple terms, which is generally more effective, you’ll have to mute them one at a time.

8. Select your preferred details for muting the term: Whether you want to mute them in your entire timeline or just notifications, whether you want to mute them from anyone or only people you don’t follow, and how long you want the term to stay muted.

9. Hit Save at the top right of the screen to mute the word or phrase. If you want to add more terms, repeat again from step six.

Tips for muting terms on Twitter

Although the muting process is straightforward, in my experience, there’s an art to successfully keeping unwanted terms off your timeline. I’ve learned two major tricks in my time trying to navigate around specific topics.

First, grab a thesaurus. As a longtime James Bond fan, I didn’t want to hear anything about No Time to Die before I saw the movie. But I knew muting the title wouldn’t be enough. I also muted the terms «Bond,» «James Bond,» «007» and «Daniel Craig» to shield myself from as many spoiler avenues as possible. Similarly, if you need a break from pandemic talk, I’d recommend muting words like «pandemic,» «COVID,» «COVID-19,» «vaccine,» «delta» and «omicron.»

Also, choose the timeline that makes sense for you. Sometimes, you just want to dodge a topic for a day. Or maybe you just need to survive spoilers through the weekend until you can watch a movie. But there might be cases where you’ll be better off muting a term forever. You can always edit your muted word settings, and your mental health should come first.

For more tweeting tips, check out our guide to Twitter Blue. We can also show you how to delete your entire Twitter history and which privacy settings you should change.

Technologies

You’ll Soon Be Able to Buy Walmart Products Through ChatGPT

OpenAI’s chatbot already connects to Etsy and Shopify. Now you can buy bananas too.

OpenAI and Walmart will soon offer shopping via AI through ChatGPT, the retail giant said in a press release on Tuesday.

While using ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout feature, customers can buy groceries, electronics or other essentials within the chatbot interface.

Walmart has its own AI assistant in its app named Sparky. With Sparky, customers can ask questions about products and get summaries of reviews to find the best item.

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«For many years now, e-commerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses. That is about to change,» Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement. «There is a native AI experience coming that is multi-media, personalized and contextual. We are running towards that more enjoyable and convenient future with Sparky and through partnerships including this important step with OpenAI.»

When asked for comment, Walmart referred to its press release. Walmart also said it wouldn’t discuss the financial terms of the agreement at this time.

«We’re excited to partner with Walmart to make everyday purchases a little simpler. It’s just one way AI will help people every day under our work together,» OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a press release.

OpenAI referred to Walmart’s press release when asked for comment.

The latest deal with Walmart comes as OpenAI tries to make ChatGPT an all-in-one shopping experience. AI chatbots are increasingly being used as vehicles for online shopping. They can synthesize reviews from across the internet and give people direct answers to shopping questions. Already, ChatGPT connects with Etsy and Shopify with its Instant Checkout feature, allowing people to buy directly. OpenAI also added more shopping features in ChatGPT Search earlier this year.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Technologies

OpenAI Will Loosen ChatGPT’s Mental Health Guardrails and Allow Erotica for Adult Users

Sam Altman said the company will ease limits for adults after rolling out age verification.

ChatGPT is treading cautiously right now, but the chatbot may become more risqué by the end of the year.

In recent weeks, the generative AI chatbot has been operating under somewhat stringent limitations, as OpenAI tried to address concerns that it was not handling sensitive mental health issues well. But CEO Sam Altman said in a post on X Tuesday that the company would ease some of those restrictions because it’s «been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues.»

Though Altman didn’t elaborate on what tools are being used to address the problem, OpenAI recently announced new parental controls in ChatGPT.

CNET reached out to OpenAI for details, but the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Other changes are also expected. Altman said the company could allow «erotica» for verified adult users as it implements an «age-gating» system, or age-restricted content, in December. The mature content is part of the company’s «treat adult users like adults» principle, Altman said.

Altman’s post also announced a new version of ChatGPT in the next few weeks, with a personality that behaves more like the company’s GPT-4o model. Chatbot users had complained after the company replaced 4o with the impersonal GPT-5 earlier this year, saying the new version lacked the engaging and fun personality of previous chatbot models.

«If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing),» Altman wrote.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

After OpenAI was sued by parents who alleged ChatGPT contributed to their teen son’s suicide, the company imposed an array of new restrictions and changes, including parental controls, alerts for risky behavior and a teen-friendly version of the chatbot. In the summer, OpenAI implemented break reminders that encourage people to occasionally stop chatting with the bot.

On Tuesday, the company also announced the creation of a council of experts on AI and well-being, including some with expertise in psychology and human behavior.

This comes as lawmakers and regulators are ringing the alarm on the risks AI tools pose to people, especially children. On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed new restrictions on AI companion chatbots into law. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into several AI companies, including OpenAI.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 15 #591

Here are hints — and the answers — for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 15, No. 591.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one, once you understand the theme. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Going up?

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Not an escalator, but…

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

ROTATE, LOBE, NOPE, RATS, STAR, SAME, LOSE, VOTE, BUTTE, SAMS, BAMS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

ALARM, OPEN, CLOSE, LOBBY, GROUND, BASEMENT

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is ELEVATORBUTTONS. To find it, look for the E that’s three letters to the right on the bottom row, and wind straight up, and then straight down.