Bioptimus raises additional $41M to build the “GPT of Biology”
Bioptimus, an AI company based in Paris, has raised $41M in its latest funding round, bringing its total funding to $76M. This comes less than a year after its initial seed round, signaling strong investor confidence. The funding, led by Cathay Innovation, will fuel Bioptimus’s mission to transform biological research with its groundbreaking AI model. A model that simulates biology Unlike traditional research that isolates different biological components, Bioptimus aims to break down these barriers. Their model integrates data from various biological scales—molecules, cells, tissues, and organisms—creating a holistic view of biology. CEO Jean-Philippe Vert likens their model to the “GPT of biology,” except it simulates biology instead of generating text. This innovation promises to enhance research in fields like medicine, biotechnology, and even cosmetics, enabling more precise predictions of disease outcomes, responses to treatments, and drug designs. Breakthroughs expected The company’s first major success, the H-Optimus-0 model for pathology, already outperforms others in independent benchmarks, including studies at Harvard and the University of Leeds. With the new funding, Bioptimus plans to further refine its platform, develop strategic partnerships, and expand its datasets, setting the stage for major breakthroughs in biological research and beyond.
Could TikTok become part of Elon Musk’s growing empire?
Home Contact Privacy Policy Advertise Copyright Careers Daily Sahar World Pakistan Trending Business Technology Latest More than 2 results are available in the PRO version (This notice is only visible to admin users) TikTok’s U.S. operations might soon find a new owner in Elon Musk, as China considers selling the popular app to avoid a potential ban. Facing a U.S. government deadline that demands ByteDance Ltd., TikTok’s parent company, divest its U.S. branch, Beijing is reportedly exploring Musk as a possible buyer. Why is Elon Musk’s name coming up? While Chinese officials prefer to keep TikTok under ByteDance’s ownership, the possibility of a forced sale has led them to consider alternatives. Musk’s name comes up due to his ties with the Trump administration and his strong business links in China through Tesla. A TikTok-Musk deal could create a powerful combination, merging TikTok’s massive video platform with Musk’s X social media network. This move could significantly boost ad revenues and provide valuable content for Musk’s AI projects. Possible ban However, TikTok’s fate is far from decided. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing the app’s appeal against the ban, but early indications suggest the law may be upheld. As the deadline approaches, all eyes are on how this high-stakes scenario unfolds—and whether Musk will add TikTok to his growing tech empire.
Nvidia surges past Apple to become the world’s most valuable company! What’s fueling this unstoppable rise?
Nvidia overtakes Apple Nvidia just made headlines by briefly becoming the world’s most valuable company, overtaking Apple for the first time since June. With a stock jump that pushed its market value to a whopping $3.53 trillion, it’s clear that Nvidia is on a roll, thanks to its key role in the booming AI industry. The stock has skyrocketed over 740% since last year, driven by its dominance in providing AI chips that power everything from chatbots to advanced data centers. Winning the AI-chip race Wall Street is buzzing about Nvidia’s future, with some analysts projecting the stock could hit $4 trillion! However, it’s not all smooth sailing—competition is heating up with companies like AMD and Intel stepping into the AI chip race. Plus, while the demand for AI remains high, some experts worry that the early excitement might lead to overspending without immediate profits. All eyes on Nvidia With its third-quarter earnings report looming, all eyes are on Nvidia to see if it can keep up the momentum. Whether you’re a seasoned investor or just curious, Nvidia’s journey is a thrilling story to watch unfold!
What is Data science? And why is it among the most trending fields?
In the olden days In pre-modern times, businesses, to boost their sales, used to dispatch their salesmen to areas where “they thought” the probability of finding a customer was high. There was always the question of “they thought”. The salesmen were not backed up by data and information as to which house, or which street should be a high priority. The salesman, having undergone no filtration and sorting out of potential buyers, set out, going from one house to another, in hopes of selling his product. This way the salesman had to encounter many such people who had no interest in the product, some who had little interest and others who had interest but could not afford to buy owing to their financial strains. Had the salesman known before time that some of his targeted people had zero interest in his product, he would have never reached out to those people, thus, saving time and energy. He could have utilised this time and energy later on, in going to an altogether different place to sell his product. But, unfortunately, in pre-modern times, there wasn’t any platform that could provide them with such accurate and precise information. Arrival of the Internet With the arrival of the internet and most importantly, the social media, big chunks of data made its way to company servers. People gave, and are still giving the social media companies important information, also called their digital footprints. As more and more people started using social media, bigger amount of data appeared. This data was a game-changer. Experts began to realize that this data could be used to achieve heights of marketing that were unimaginable hitherto. This data on users, would tell lots about them. It would tell a company what product is the user interested in, which brand does he prefer to wear, what time is he most probable to buy products, from obvious details to the very minutest online behaviour of the user. When you know what a user is searching on google, you can easily guess what product he might be interested in or looking for in a certain time frame, and this information, in turn would help you guess which ad would he most likely fall prey to. This data on users is what companies nowadays are looking for to enhance impact of their marketing advertisement campaigns. With the transition from traditional salesman-styled marketing to modern marketing approach, the role of salesmen has been reduced to zero, and its task has been taken over by social media and internet companies like Facebook, twitter, etc. which propose their data of users to the companies and allow them to display ads on their platforms. These ads that companies display, is not displayed randomly to any one on Facebook (for instance), it is rather displayed to only those who are more likely to be affected by the ad. This likeliness, again, is something that data of users can help determine, whether a person is a football lover or cricket lover depends upon his Facebook usage data. Let’s understand through an example As an example, let us imagine that 100 people are to be approached by a company for advertisement of a product. On the one hand we suppose the company uses the conventional method I-e dispatching salesmen to 100 random people in a town. On the other hand, the company undertakes a modern way and uses Facebook to display advertisement to 100 people. In the conventional method, we don’t know how many of the 100 people are likely to be interested in our product because we don’t have any data on them except their location. Therefore, there is an element of risk involved in this method. It might happen that all of the 100 people would be interested in the product, equally probable is the possibility that none of them shows interest in the product (and in this case, the expense of this advertisement campaign overweighs the output) Conversely, the modern approach reduces the element of risk to a bare minimum. Because Facebook has enormous amount of data and insights on every user, it would make sure that all the hundred out of hundred people selected for ads are those who are genuinely interested in the said product. And UP goes the chances of them ending up buying the product. This way the modern way of advertising, whose backbone is ‘data’, would naturally be the choice of the company. And nowadays, as companies are crossing Billion-dollar net worth figures, their marketing budgets have also plunged up to millions of dollars. That is why, with so much money at stake, no company would want to go with a model that is shrouded with risks. Role of Data science In all what has been discussed until now, one thing seems to be missing and that is: Where does Data Science fit into all this? Well, the most important role in the transition from traditional advertisement to modern advertisement is the role of Data scientists. How do the companies know that such and such product would entice so and so person? How do they group people into different categories with only their behavioral data available to them? This is all a blessing of data science. Data science, with the application of programming and statistics manipulate and polish the raw data into such a form which is makes decision making very easy and almost risk free. Example of a restaurant For example, let us suppose there is a fast-food restaurant. How would a data scientist, or, data science in general be of help to this restaurant? A data scientist would first check on company’s sales records and find out those places where these restaurants sales are higher than other places. He would visualise the data I-e make different graphs and charts that would show that in some specific places the restaurants business is growing while in others its plummeting. This data would compel the restaurant owners to reconsider their marketing approach
Social media, hitherto thought of to be a connecting tool, is now dividing us
What is the Echo-Chamber effect? Social media places you in the same chamber as in the picture. It is called “echo-chamber effect”. It is this chamber which makes you believe you are right about things. How’s that? Different factors play their part. Facebook has these ever growing algorithms that are becoming more and more intelligent with time. They are unique for different people. Your watching habits, interactions on posts and your watch-time on Facebook, feeds these algorithms with information needed to let them guess what video should be displayed to you next. Algorithms let you watch only the content that matches your interest and that can guarantee more screen time. This ensures more usage of facebook on the user’s part and hence, Facebook gets more time to offer to advertisers( to make profit).Facebook might have been unaware of the consequences of its algorithms back when it’s company did not have any roots into the fabric of society (as they have now) but today they know very well. Political Polarisation One of the most concerning consequence of the echo chamber effect is its acute “political polarisation” of the masses. People have become politically polarised, so much so that they see no grey area between and the opponent’s political stance. They are bitterly opposed to each other’s ideas and see no room for some sort of a settlement or agreement. So much intolerant have they become, that they don’t discuss politics when sitting in a gathering because their conflicting notions may result in arguments(we see it quite often in Pakistan). All this is because they are fed so much content ( that resonates with their viewpoint) by the algorithms, that they begins to think, that, what they see, is a predominant worldview. They are polarised to the point that no amount of debates or reasoning would convince them they are wrong. Debating with such a person is akin to fighting his echo chambers/ algorithms. When you debate with such a person, it is as though you are up against the propaganda machine behind him. Debating won’t do the trick, after all, all he has to do is to go back to his echo chamber, spend a day, and, we are back to square one. How has this phenomenon affected the US? Recent change in political dynamics of the US would make a perfect study of political polarisation. World did never anticipate that differences stemming from presidential elections would culminate in separatist movements( as in case of 2014 elections when Pro Hillary voters in Washington demanded a separate state to be governed by Hillary). Or in 2020 elections when the polls incited a group of pro Trump supporters to forcefully enter the Capitol, which is unprecedented. These above events is a result of political polarisation of people. Events like these have never occurred in the history of US. They are happening now. Social media, its algorithms, echo Chambers are to blame. Situation in Pakistan is even worse partly because we have disinformation involved and because our people take social media to be their primary source of information and knowledge. This combination is deadly. Our people are way more polarised than in any other country. On social media, the line between information and disinformation has blurred. Bear in mind: Social media is the new Joseph Goebbels.