Technologies

ChatGPT’s New Parental Controls Will Issue Alerts About Kids’ Safety Risks

Parents can adjust settings to limit their children’s activities, but they won’t have access to their conversations with ChatGPT.

OpenAI is giving parents more control over how their kids use ChatGPT. New parental controls come at a critical moment, as many families, schools and advocacy groups voice their concerns about the potentially dangerous role AI chatbots can play in the development of teenagers and children.

Parents will have to link their own ChatGPT account with their child’s to access the new features. However, OpenAI said that these features do not give parents access to their child’s conversations with ChatGPT and that, in cases where the company identifies «serious safety risks,» a parent will be alerted «only with the information needed to support their teen’s safety.»

It’s a «first-of-its-kind safety notification system to alert parents if their teen may be at risk of self-harm,» said Lauren Haber Jonas, OpenAI’s head of youth well-being, in a LinkedIn post.

Once the accounts are linked, parents can set quiet hours and times when the kids won’t be able to use ChatGPT, as well as turn off image generation and voice mode capabilities. On the technical side, parents can also opt their kids out of content training and choose to have ChatGPT not save or remember their kids’ previous chats. Parents can also elect to reduce sensitive content, which enables additional content restrictions around things like graphic content. Teens can unlink their account from a parent’s, but the parent will be notified if that occurs.

ChatGPT’s parent company announced last month it would be introducing more parental controls in the wake of a lawsuit a California family filed against it. The family is alleging the AI chatbot is responsible for their 16-year-old son’s suicide earlier this year, calling ChatGPT his «suicide coach.» A rising number of AI users have their AI chatbots take on the role of a therapist or confidant. Therapists and mental health experts have expressed concerns over this, saying AI like ChatGPT isn’t trained to accurately assess, flag and intervene when encountering red flag language and behaviors.

(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.)

If you feel like you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 911 (or your country’s local emergency line) or go to an emergency room to get immediate help. Explain that it is a psychiatric emergency and ask for someone who is trained for these kinds of situations. If you’re struggling with negative thoughts or suicidal feelings, resources are available to help. In the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, Sept. 30

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Sept. 30.

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

Is it just me, or was today’s Mini Crossword especially hard? I thought I was never going to solve it, and I’m used to this puzzle being a nice easy one! Possible SPOILER: I just organized my 40th high school class reunion this summer, and I swear I have never used the related word that is the answer to 2-Down before. Need answers? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Exclamation made with a shiver
Answer: BRR

4A clue: Putt ‘er there!
Answer: GREEN

6A clue: «___ gotta be kidding me!»
Answer: YOUVE

7A clue: Negative attribute, so to speak
Answer: MINUS

8A clue: Got some shut-eye
Answer: SLEPT

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Oven button with a «high» or «low» setting
Answer: BROIL

2D clue: Get together again, like alumni
Answer: REUNE (Editor’s note: Whaaaaaa? How is this a word? It’s even in the dictionary! I realize REUNITE did not fit, but…)

3D clue: Make go «Vroom!»
Answer: REVUP

4D clue: Spots where you might spot some spotters
Answer: GYM

5D clue: Egg container
Answer: NEST

Technologies

AI Can Now Help You Create Top-Grade Word Documents and Excel Spreadsheets

Microsoft adds a whole new vibe to its 1980s-era software pioneers.

I’m not a wizard with Word and Excel. Are you? Do we know what to do with all those many menus at the top? Now, thanks to AI, maybe we don’t need to.

Microsoft has added AI to those software programs of yesteryear with Agent Mode for both Word and Excel. Powered by Microsoft 365 Copilot, Agent Mode can help anyone — even those with little experience — create high-quality, professional-grade documents and spreadsheets. Microsoft will add Agent Mode to PowerPoint at a future date.

Microsoft has also added Office Agent to Copilot chat to help create PowerPoint presentations and Word documents. Functionality for Excel will be added later.

Vibe coding

It’s a new take on the vibe coding wave, whereby developers can create software with natural language prompts instead of writing lines of code by hand, said Sumit Chauhan, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Office product group.

«Get started with a simple prompt and then work iteratively with Copilot — steering it as it orchestrates multi-step tasks to deliver high-quality Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations,» Chauhan said in a statement. «It’s the new pattern of work for human-agent collaboration.»

How Agent Mode works

Say you want to create a household budget in Excel. Tell Agent Mode to create budget categories such as rent or mortgage, groceries, utilities, gas and entertainment. You can have Agent Mode create formulas to let you know if you’re over and under budget, among other tasks. Agent Mode in Excel could also help you create a financial analysis for a business.

In Word, Agent Mode can help you create or refine a limitless number of documents, such as revising and cleaning up your resume, composing a holiday letter, or writing a progress report or executive summary for a business.

Microsoft says Agent Mode for Word «handles the heavy lifting: drafting content, suggesting refinements, and asking clarifying questions. » The consumer works with Agent Mode to keep refining and honing the document to the finished product.

Office Agent in Copilot chat 

You can start creating a PowerPoint from Copilot chat, using a prompt such as «Create a 10-slide PowerPoint deck of the most popular tech products in the US.» The Office Agent will then work with you to clarify intent, such as visual theme and target audience, refine the presentation, and determine how much research is needed.

How to begin

Agent Mode in Copilot for Excel and Word is now available in the Frontier program for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed customers and Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscribers.

Agent Mode is available in Excel on the web and will be coming soon to the desktop. To try it, install the Excel Labs add-in and choose Agent Mode. Agent Mode works in Word on the web, with desktop coming soon. Get started here.

Office Agent is available in the Frontier program for Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscribers in the US. Office Agent works in Microsoft 365 Copilot on the web in English. Get started here.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Sept. 30, #372

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 372 for Tuesday, Sept. 30.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition has a category playing off the fact that many athletes have last names that are also words with other meanings. If you recognized a few of those, you probably did well. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Pass the Cracker Jack.

Green group hint: Throw it in there.

Blue group hint: Star players.

Purple group hint: Airplanes do this.