I think it's much more subtle than that. 'Powered' is a poor metaphor I think. I believe what they're referring to is the actual reverse transcription process.

I think it's much more subtle than that. 'Powered' is a poor metaphor I think. I believe what they're referring to is the actual reverse transcription process. Retroviruses carry its own reverse transcriptease, and must use the cell's own resources to do the actual transcription (they need to get the dNTP to build actual DNA strands). The 'big deal' about this discovery is that HIV can use rNTP to preform reverse transcription instead in cases where there isn't enough dNTP, which presumably (I'm not an expert in this field) is one of the reasons why it is so successful compared to other retroviruses.