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Time of India
5 hours ago
- Time of India
What does GPT in ChatGPT stand for?
Since its launch in late 2022, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. From helping students with assignments to assisting professionals with complex tasks, this AI-powered tool has quickly become part of everyday life. But behind the buzz, many people still wonder: what exactly does 'GPT' mean, and how does this technology work? Let's break it down in simple terms. GPT : Generative Pre-trained Transformer The full form of GPT is Generative Pre-trained Transformer, which may sound technical at first. Generative means the system creates new responses on its own, rather than just selecting from pre-written answers. Pre-trained refers to the extensive learning it underwent by studying a vast amount of text before interacting with users. Transformer is the advanced technology that helps it understand and make sense of human language. Together, these elements allow ChatGPT to have conversations that feel natural and human-like. What does "generative" mean? Simply put, it means ChatGPT writes its own responses. Earlier chatbots worked off scripts– they could only respond using canned replies. ChatGPT, however, doesn't follow a script. You can ask it to explain a topic, create a poem, or summarize a book, and it will come up with a brand-new answer on the spot. What's "pre-trained" all about? Before the tool was made available to the public, it went through an intense training phase. During this time, it was fed vast amounts of text– from books, websites, Wikipedia, news stories, and more. This gave it a broad understanding of how language works and what kind of responses make sense. "Transformer" – The technology behind it The 'transformer' refers to the core design that powers GPT. Introduced in 2017, this technology enables the AI to understand not just individual words but also the relationships between them throughout a sentence. This helps the AI grasp context more effectively and respond in a clear and logical way. Who Created GPT and When? GPT technology was created by OpenAI , a research company in the United States. OpenAI was started in 2015 by a group of tech innovators and scientists, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman , Greg Brockman, and Ilya Sutskever. Although Musk later stepped away, Sam Altman remains the CEO and leads the company today. GPT began with its first version, GPT-1, released in 2018. The next year, GPT-2 brought significant improvements. In 2020, GPT-3 arrived, offering more advanced and human-like responses. ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, making this technology easy to use through a chat interface. Since then, newer versions like GPT-4 and GPT-4o have added more capabilities, including understanding images and sometimes sounds.
The Hindu
6 hours ago
- The Hindu
Lenacapavir: After FDA approval, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis injectable moving closer to EU approval
On July 25, The European Medicines Agency (EMA)'s advisory committee recommended Gilead Sciences' Lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injection, for preventing HIV infection in adults and adolescents. Any recommendation by EMA's advisory committee has to be formally approved by the European Commission, which is expected later this year. The recommendation by the EMA's advisory committee comes about a month after the U.S. FDA on June 18, 2025 approved the injectable HIV-1 capsid inhibitor as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The World Health Organization welcomed the approval by FDA on June 19 and issued guidelines for use of Lenacapavir for HIV prevention on July 14. 'Offering additional pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) choices has the potential to increase uptake and effective use of PrEP, and of HIV prevention overall, as it allows people to choose a method that they prefer,' the guidelines say. Studies have also shown that Lenacapavir can achieve significant viral suppression, even in cases where other drugs have failed. The FDA approved Lenacapavir is based on the 2024 results from the PURPOSE 1 and PURPOSE 2 trials, which demonstrated the safety and efficacy of the pre-exposure prophylaxis injectable across diverse populations and settings. The PURPOSE 1 was a Phase 3, double-blind, randomised trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of twice-yearly, subcutaneous Lenacapavir for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and was tested on 5,338 cisgender women and adolescent girls aged 16-25 across 25 sites in South Africa and three sites in Uganda. The injectable was compared with an active control arm that received once-daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis drug Truvada (emtricitabine-tenofovir disoproxil fumarate; F/TDF). There were zero HIV infections among 2,134 participants in the Lenacapavir group, while the active control group had 39 infections among 2,136 participants. In the PURPOSE 2 Phase-3 trial involving 3,265 participants in the modified intention-to-treat analysis, two participants were infected with HIV in the arm that received the injectable, while nine participants who received the active control PrEP oral drug Truvada (emtricitabine-tenofovir disoproxil fumarate; F/TDF) were infected. The background HIV incidence in the screened population (4,634 participants) was 2.37 per 100 person-years. The trial was carried out in of cisgender men, transgender, and nonbinary individuals across 88 sites in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Thailand and the U.S. Compared with the generic PrEP oral drug Truvada, which is extremely inexpensive and widely available, Lenacapavir costs $28,000 for two injections. Why would people ever prefer to use Lenacapavir considering the cost? 'Oral PrEP will be effective only if there is 100% adherence. The oral drug won't work even if it is missed for a day because the drug level will be only 24 hours,' says Dr. N. Kumarasamy, Chief and Director, VHS-Infectious Diseases Medical Centre, Voluntary Health Services, Chennai. 'People who have the highest risk such as sex workers and gay men have to take the drug every day. Taking a tablet every day, even for a deceased patient, is so difficult. They tend to miss a dose, which is why adherence is never 100%,' he says. 'Even in the case of on-demand PrEP, where people who want to indulge in unprotected sex have to take the oral drug two days before, then throughout the period of risky behaviour and continue for two more days after risky behaviour ends, adherence never goes beyond 85-90%. PrEP will work only if the adherence is 100%.' According to Dr. Kumarasamy, despite the oral tablet being inexpensive and easy to take, the adherence is less than ideal, the reason why people are moving towards long-acting injectables that prevent HIV infection for months after an injection. Cabotegravir, which was developed as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), underwent trials in many countries and was approved for use. Cabotegravir, which is administered intramuscularly every two months, was found superior compared with every day oral PrEP tablet, and started getting implemented in certain parts of the world, Dr. Kumarasamy says. 'Since Cabotegravir has to be administered every two months, people tend to forget. The new drug Lanacapivir has been found to be effective for six months in the trials. The injectable was developed in 2021 as treatment in people who no longer respond to other drugs as they have developed resistance,' he says. Because Lenacapavir was found to be long-acting, it was repurposed as a pre-exposure prophylaxis administered subcutaneously. 'Lenacapavir is a robust molecule and is the best solution in the absence of vaccines. Even if there is going to be an HIV vaccine one day, I'm sure people will have to take the vaccine every year or something. Like a flu shot, you know if at all they are going to develop a vaccine, people may have to take it every year or every six months as a booster dose. It may not be like a one dose that is effective for years,' Dr. Kumarasamy says. 'In the absence of a HIV vaccine, I think the pre-exposure prophylaxis every six months can be considered like a vaccine.' Gilead is developing the same molecule to be administered once a year instead of every six months. They are already working on that. But it will not be a subcutaneous form but as an intramuscular injection, he says. Licensing agreements On October 2, 2024, Gilead Sciences signed non-exclusive, royalty-free voluntary licensing agreements with six pharmaceutical manufacturers to make and sell generic Lenacapavir. Of the six generic manufacturers, four are in India. Besides signing agreement to license generic manufacturers to make the injectable, Gilead Sciences also said that it would 'support low-cost access to the drug in high-incidence, resource-limited countries at no profit until generic manufacturers are able to fully support demand'. These countries are: Botswana, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The company has licensed Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Limited, Emcure, Hetero and Mylan, a subsidiary of Viatris, to manufacture Lenacapavir in India. The companies will be permitted to supply to 120 countries. According to the press release, the agreements cover not only Lenacapavir for HIV prevention but also for HIV treatment in heavily treatment-experienced (HTE) adults with multi-drug resistant HIV. According to Dr. Kumarasamy one company has already started developing the drug and Lenacapavir may become available next year once the Indian drug regulator approves it based on the results of a safety study carried out in India. As per his estimate, the generic form of Lenacapavir will cost about $100 per dose.
Time of India
9 hours ago
- Time of India
Jeff Bezos sells $1.5 billion in Amazon shares: Here's how much he still owns
Jeff Bezos has sold another large chunk of his Amazon holdings, just days before the company's Q2 earnings announcement on 31 July. A total of 6.6 million shares, valued at roughly $1.5 billion, were sold on 21 and 22 July. The transactions were disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as reported by Barron's. The sale was carried out under a prearranged trading plan known as Rule 10b5-1 . Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Technology Leadership Public Policy healthcare Digital Marketing Management Data Analytics Design Thinking Artificial Intelligence Operations Management Cybersecurity MBA Healthcare MCA Finance Data Science PGDM Others Product Management CXO Data Science Project Management Degree others Skills you'll gain: Duration: 12 Weeks MIT xPRO CERT-MIT XPRO Building AI Prod India Starts on undefined Get Details The timing and structure of the sale are entirely legal under US financial regulations, as the trades were planned in advance. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Knee Surgeon: Suffering From Pain After Age 50? Do This Every Morning Wellnee Undo How rule 10b5-1 Works Rule 10b5-1 is a regulation from the SEC that allows company insiders to set up a trading plan in advance for buying or selling shares. This rule provides a legal safeguard against accusations of insider trading. These plans only work if they're created and executed in good faith, and long before the insider has access to any material non-public information. Live Events 'Insiders use the plans, which automatically execute trades when preset conditions, such as price, volume, and timing, are met, to remove the appearance that they might benefit from their access to nonpublic information,' according to Barron's. The rule itself is meant to clarify a broader anti-fraud provision under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, known as Rule 10b-5. More sales on the horizon Bezos is far from done. According to the same SEC filing, the Amazon founder still holds 4.6 million shares, valued at around $1 billion, and has outlined plans to sell up to 25 million shares by 29 May 2026. The filing refers to this as a plan 'intended to satisfy Rule 10b5-1(c)'. As Barron's put it plainly: 'Bezos isn't done.' This is his fourth such trading plan in the past 18 months. A steady offload since June Bezos has been selling shares aggressively in recent weeks. Since his wedding in late June, he's sold nearly $5.7 billion worth of Amazon stock. Earlier this month alone, he offloaded shares worth $737 million. These sales are part of a broader trend. In total, Bezos has now sold 95 million Amazon shares across 2024 and 2025, totalling $18.2 billion. Since 2002, his total cashouts have exceeded $50 billion. In contrast, Bezos has only bought Amazon stock once on record: a single share two years ago at $114.77. Still holding a stake, still giving it away Despite the recent sell-off, Bezos still owns a sizeable chunk of Amazon. His remaining shares are valued at approximately $232 billion. Alongside selling, he's been donating. Over 2024 and 2025, Bezos gave away 4.5 million shares to charity, with a combined value of about $1 billion. This latest sale lands just ahead of Amazon's Q2 earnings announcement. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $1.32 per share and revenue of $162 billion. That's an increase of 4 percent and 9 percent, respectively, compared to the same quarter last year. However, Amazon's performance is still trailing behind other big tech firms in the so-called 'Magnificent Seven'. According to market forecasts, Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia are leading the S&P 500 growth into 2025. Apple is lagging, primarily due to uncertainty around its AI strategy. Bezos's stock sales, while substantial, fit a well-documented pattern. He's gradually pulling back his personal stake while funding new ventures and philanthropic projects, using a legally sound structure that limits any speculation of insider advantage.
