https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37270370/

Prostate-specific antigen level association with COVID-19 infection and vaccination

Abstract

Introduction: The associations among SARS-CoV-2 infection, vaccination and total serum prostate serum antigen (PSA) levels in men undergoing screening for prostate cancer are unknown.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of data from a large health maintenance organization. Records of individuals aged 50 to 75 years with two serum PSA tests taken between March 2018 and November 2021 were included. Individuals with prostate cancer were excluded. Changes in PSA levels were compared between individuals who had at least 1 SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and/or infection between the two PSA tests and individuals who did not have an infection and were not vaccinated between the two PSA tests. Subgroup analyses were performed to assess the impact of the elapsed time between the event and the second PSA test on the results.

Results: The study and control groups included 6,733 (29%) and 16 286 (71%) individuals, respectively. Although the median time between PSA tests was shorter in the study vs. the control group (440 vs. 469 days, P<.001), PSA elevation between the tests was higher in the study group (0.04 vs. 0.02, P<.001). The relative risk for PSA elevation ≥1 ng/dL was 1.22 (95% CI 1.1, 1.35). Among individuals who were vaccinated, PSA increased by 0.03 ng/dL (IQR -0.12, 0.28) and 0.09 ng/dL (IQR -0.05, 0.34) after 1 and 3 doses, respectively (P<.001). Multivariate linear regression showed that SARS-CoV-2 events (β 0.043; 95% CI 0.026-0.06) were associated with a greater risk for PSA elevation, after adjusting for age, baseline PSA and days between PSA tests.

Conclusion: SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccinations are associated with a slight increase in PSA, with the third anti-COVID vaccine dose having a more prominent impact, but its clinical significance is unknown yet. Any significant increase in PSA must be investigated and cannot be dismissed as secondary to SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination.

https://twitter.com/MakisMD/status/1747151145179726013

William Makis MD

@MakisMD

Novavax Senior Vice President Tim Hahn died suddenly Dec.18, 2023.

He led efforts on various vaccines including the COVID-19 Novavax Vaccine.

#DiedSuddenly #cdnpoli #ableg #Pfizer #Moderna

12:57 AM · Jan 16, 2024

OpenAI Working With U.S. Military on Cybersecurity Tools

https://time.com/6556827/openai-us-military-cybersecurity/

OpenAI is working with the Pentagon on a number of projects including cybersecurity capabilities, a departure from the startup’s earlier ban on providing its artificial intelligence to militaries.

The ChatGPT maker is developing tools with the U.S. Defense Department on open-source cybersecurity software — collaborating with DARPA for its AI Cyber Challenge announced last year — and has had initial talks with the US government about methods to assist with preventing veteran suicide, Anna Makanju, the company’s vice president of global affairs, said in an interview at Bloomberg House at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.

The company had recently removed language in its terms of service banning its AI from “military and warfare” applications. Makanju described the decision as part of a broader update of its policies to adjust to new uses of ChatGPT and its other tools.

Read More: 2023 CEO of the Year: Sam Altman

“Because we previously had what was essentially a blanket prohibition on military, many people thought that would prohibit many of these use cases, which people think are very much aligned with what we want to see in the world,” she said. But OpenAI maintained a ban on using its tech to develop weapons, destroy property or harm people, Makanju said.

Microsoft Corp., OpenAI’s largest investor, provides several software contracts to the US armed forces and other government branches. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft are assisting the US Defense Advanced Research Agency with its AI Cyber Challenge to find software that will automatically fix vulnerabilities and defend infrastructure from cyberattacks.

The Intercept had previously reported the changes to OpenAI’s terms.

OpenAI also said that it’s accelerating its work on election security, devoting resources to ensuring that its generative AI tools aren’t used to spread political disinformation.

“Elections are a huge deal,” Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive officer, said in the same interview. “I think it’s good that we have a lot of anxiety.”

>>20260953

ChatGPT creator joins forces with Pentagon

ChatGPT creator OpenAI is working with the US military on several artificial intelligence projects after dropping a prohibition on the use of its technologies for “military and warfare” purposes, a company executive told Bloomberg on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The AI pioneer is developing “open-source cybersecurity software” and discussing how to prevent suicides among military veterans with the US government, OpenAI vice president of global affairs Anna Makanju said.

While Makanju did not elaborate on either project, she explained that OpenAI’s decision to remove a blanket prohibition on the use of its AI tech for “military and warfare” applications was in line with a broader policy update “to adjust to new uses of ChatGPT and its other tools,” according to Bloomberg.

“Because we previously had what was essentially a blanket prohibition on military, many people thought that would prohibit many of these use cases, which people think are very much aligned with what we want to see in the world,” she explained.

Despite the ban’s repeal, Makanju insisted OpenAI continues to prohibit the use of its technology to “develop weapons, destroy property, or harm people.”

However, Microsoft, which owns a large part of OpenAI and enjoys the unrestricted use of its advanced AI technologies, has long contracted with the US military and other branches of the government, and lacks any inbuilt prohibition on weapons development, according to Bloomberg.

In addition to partnering with the Pentagon for military applications, OpenAI is expanding its operations in the realm of “election security,” according to CEO Sam Altman, who also spoke to Bloomberg during the Davos conclave.

“Elections are a huge deal,” he said, declaring it “good” that “we have a lot of anxiety” about the process.

His company is reportedly working on preventing the use of its generative AI tools to spread “political disinformation,” such as deepfakes and other artificially-generated media that could be used to attack or prop up candidates during the 2024 voting cycle.

Last month, OpenAI and Microsoft were sued by the New York Times for copyright infringement, with the self-anointed paper of record declaring their generative AI capabilities to be unfair competition and an existential threat to press freedom. The lawsuit seeks “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” for “unlawful copying” and use of the NYT’s intellectual property.

Susman Godfrey, the law firm representing the NYT, also proposed a class action lawsuit against the AI titans in November for “rampant theft” of authors’ works, alleging the companies illegally used nonfiction authors’ writings without their permission to “train” their blockbuster chatbot ChatGPT

https://www.rt.com/news/590819-openai-pentagon-cybersecurity-weapons-change/