Technologies

Europe seeks alignment with US on tech issues ahead of first trade council meeting

Europe is trying to find common ground with the US on issues such as AI, competition and taxation, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Tuesday at a conference.

The US and Europe may soon be more in sync on tech issues, with the first meeting of the newly formed US-EU Trade & Technology Council due to take place Wednesday in Pittsburgh. In the run-up to the meeting, Margrethe Vestager, the European Competition Commissioner and VP of the EU’s digital project, expressed her hopes for the two powers to find alignment in areas including competition, AI and taxation.

Vestager, who spoke Tuesday at Vox’s Code Conference in Los Angeles, has garnered a reputation for being tough on big tech. That’s largely due to the hefty antitrust fines she’s handed out to tech giants, in particular Google and Amazon, as well as a major tax spat with Apple. Former US President Donald Trump viewed her as an enemy of both America and technology, but she professes to be a fan of both and sees a shared purpose with her current counterparts in the US.

Her «mission,» she said Tuesday at the conference, is «to make sure that technology serves us, not only as consumers but also as citizens.»

In many respects, Vestager’s reputation has also been shaped by the fact Europe has pushed ahead of the US in terms of regulating big tech. The most prominent example of that is the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation in 2018, which saw an overhaul of Europe’s privacy laws to make them better fit the digital age. One of the law’s hallmark features was meant to be steep fines for tech giants who misuse consumer data. The GDPR has been criticized for not resulting in enough large fines for big tech, as well as being the cause of the large number of privacy pop-ups in the browsers of European web users.

Vestager on Tuesday conceded that improvements were necessary in those regards, but she ultimately defended the legislation, pointing to the broader impact it’s had on the global conversation around citizen’s digital rights.

«The main success of GDPR, is that now privacy is a thing,» she said. «If we had not passed this kind of legislation, I think we would still be in the dark.»

Vestager also noted that since first working with the US, she’s observed a major shift in thinking on the part of lawmakers in the country about privacy. The US isn’t alone in this, she added. «It’s only a question of time before you see … real alignments between democracies on this planet — Europe, the US, India, Canada, Australia, Japan,» Vestager said. «Everyone is now coming on board.»

Seeking alignment with the US was a common thread running through Vestager’s session at Code, as she expressed her hope of finding common ground with her peers in Washington, DC. It’s no secret that Europe and the US struggled to work together during Trump’s presidency. Tensions over taxation caused the US to implement tariffs on a number of major goods exported by Europe as individual countries sought to tax big American tech companies on a more regional basis.

«There has been a complete turnaround with the change of administration, when it comes to saying, It’s important that you pay your taxes,» Vestager said. She added that she hoped that an international agreement was imminent, for corporate taxation and the distribution of taxing rights, «so that businesses pay taxes where they create their value.»

Equally, Vestager said she felt the US and EU were increasingly aligned on competition matters based on President Joe Biden’s July executive order. Biden’s plan for «Promoting Competition in the American Economy» ordered the Federal Trade Commission to bar unfair methods of competition on internet marketplaces. It also seeks to restore Obama-era net neutrality rules and calls for greater scrutiny of mergers, singling out «dominant internet platforms.»

«That kind of signaling is what is encouraging everyone who thinks that fair competition should be the rule in the marketplace,» Vestager said.

One additional priority area for Vestager to coordinate on with the US in Wednesday’s meeting is artificial intelligence. Consumers are most familiar with AI in the form of Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant and Apple’s Siri, but AI goes beyond smart assistants. It can be used to digitally impersonate real people in the form of deepfakes and spread disinformation, but it’s also expected to transform the way we live.

«In order for that enormous potential to be unleashed, we need to be able to trust it,» Vestager said. This often hasn’t been the case, due to the number of instances in which the technology has been shown to hold bias, she added. «We need to move forward in democracies to change that, because otherwise, artificial intelligence will be turned against us.»

Technologies

Chrome Autofill Now Supports Passport, Driver’s License and Vehicle Info

Soon, you’ll never need to remember anything ever again.

Computer users are accustomed to web browsers autofilling everything from names and addresses to credit card numbers. Now, Google Chrome is adding new enhanced autofill options that allow users to automatically populate fields for passports, driver’s licenses, and their vehicle’s license plate or VIN, Google said in a blog post on Monday.

Desktop users must choose to turn on the feature, which is called enhanced autofill. Otherwise, it stays off. To turn it on, open Chrome, and at the top right of your browser, select more, then settings, then autofill and passwords. Finally, choose enhanced autofill and turn it in.

Google says Chrome now can «better understand complex forms and varied formatting requirements, improving accuracy across the web.» The company also says that enhanced autofill will be «private and secure.»

This enhanced autofill update is available in all languages, and more data options will be supported in the coming months.

A representative for Google said the company had no additional comment.

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

Chrome is a critical component in Google’s business. The web browser, currently the most popular in the world with a 73% market share, according to GlobalStats, provides the company with valuable user data that it uses to sell advertising. Advertising is how Google makes the majority of its revenues. New features help keep users loyal to Chrome, making it more difficult for them to switch to other browsers, including those from companies like Perplexity and OpenAI.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Nov. 4, #407

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Nov. 4, No. 407.

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 is a tough one. The Connections: Sports Edition puzzle makers will never run out of categories because they have discovered they can just pick one athlete and make a connections group out of four facts about that person. They do that today with the blue category, so if you don’t know that one player, you’re out of luck. 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: Get up and go!

Green group hint: College hoops.

Blue group hint: Famous basketball player.

Purple group hint: Not fair, but…

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Energy.

Green group: Men’s college basketball teams with the most championships.

Blue group: Associated with Damian Lillard.

Purple group: Foul ____.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is energy. The four answers are pep, verve, vigor and zip.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is men’s college basketball teams with the most championships. The four answers are Kentucky, UCLA, UCONN and UNC.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with Damian Lillard. The four answers are 0, Dame Time, Trail Blazers and Weber State.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is foul ____. The four answers are out, shot, territory and tip.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, Nov. 4

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Nov. 4.

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.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? There are a few tricky clues, so read on for the answers. 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.