Deni Ellis Béchard
@denibechard.bsky.social
Senior tech reporter at Scientific American. Author of 10 books. Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Nautilus Book Award, Midwest Book Award. Just published a novel about AI: We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine. Link below to order. https://lnk.bio/denibechard
Chatfishing… We’ve spent decades training chatbots to pass the Turing test. Now those chatbots are fooling us on dating apps. In this article @sciam.bsky.social, I look at the many reasons we are so vulnerable to chatfishing. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
So You Fell for a Robot—‘Chatfishing’ Is Taking Over the Dating Apps
Forget fake profile pics on dating apps—AI is now doing the talking, and we can’t tell the difference
scientificamerican.com
I recently published this story about New York City rats. It's one of the more enjoyable pieces that I've done recently. www.scientificamerican.com/article/scie...
New York City’s Rats Love to Talk—New Tech Reveals Their Secret Lives
A new preprint field study reveals that New York City’s rats aren’t just survivors—they’re talkative city dwellers with their own hidden nightlife. Mapping their movements and conversations could offe...
scientificamerican.com
I just published this article about a fascinating study showing how AI agents can be hijacked with messages in background images. www.scientificamerican.com/article/hack...
The New Frontier of AI Hacking—Could Online Images Hijack Your Computer?
Artificial-intelligence agents—touted as AI’s next wave—could be vulnerable to malicious code hidden in innocent-looking images on your computer screen
scientificamerican.com
New article up! www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...
How an Unsolved Math Problem Could Train AI to Predict Crises Years in Advance
An artificial intelligence breakthrough uses reinforcement learning to tackle the Andrews-Curtis conjecture, solving long-standing counterexamples and hinting at tools for forecasting stock crashes, d...
scientificamerican.com
Just published this piece on the debate around AI consciousness www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-...
Your Chatbot Says It Might Be Conscious. Should You Believe It?
As large language models like Claude 4 express uncertainty about whether they are conscious, researchers race to decode their inner workings, raising profound questions about machine awareness, ethics...
scientificamerican.com
Just published another one... www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
Why This Is the Only Bomb That Could Destroy Iran's Nuclear Bunker—Under 300 Feet of Rock
American military engineers designed the GBU-57/B bomb to devastate deeply buried bunkers without radioactive fallout. It’s the only nonnuclear weapon that can reach Iran’s hardest target
scientificamerican.com
For cat lovers, here's an article on AI and cat communication that I just published. www.scientificamerican.com/article/what...
What Is Your Cat Trying to Say? These AI Tools Aim to Decipher Meows
AI is shedding new light on the 12,000-year conversation between cats and their humans, suggesting that house cats wield a far richer vocabulary than once thought
scientificamerican.com
A recent piece that I did on drone swarms: www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...
How Drone Swarms Work—From Iran’s Shahed Attack to Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb
Iranian Shahed drones, Ukrainian quadcopters and the U.S.’s Golden Horde program reveal three paths to massed autonomy, and each rewrites the rules of air defense
scientificamerican.com
Just a simple explainer on nuclear enrichment in the context of what is happening in Iran www.scientificamerican.com/article/coul...
Could Iran Have Been Close to Making a Nuclear Weapon? Uranium Enrichment Explained
When Israeli aircraft recently struck a uranium-enrichment complex in the nation, Iran could have been days away from achieving “breakout,” the ability to quickly turn “yellowcake” uranium into bomb-g...
scientificamerican.com
Just published a brief explainer on thermal runaway in Waymo cars... www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...
Why Waymo Cars Burned So Completely in the Recent Los Angeles Protests
During recent protests in Los Angeles, fires triggered “thermal runaway” in several Waymo robotaxis’ lithium-ion battery packs. The phenomenon sent temperatures past 1,000 degrees Celsius, vaporized m...
scientificamerican.com
Just published a profile of Derek Muller that discusses @veritasium.bsky.social’s new video about PFAS chemicals. www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...
YouTube Science Star Derek Muller Confronts PFAS “Forever Chemicals”—In His Own Blood
YouTube star Derek Muller built an 18-million-subscriber YouTube empire by challenging misconceptions about science. Now his own blood test and a sudden EPA reversal give his work urgent relevance.
scientificamerican.com
My new article on criminal AI @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/xant...
Criminal AI is Here—And Anyone Can Subscribe
A new AI platform called Xanthorox markets itself as a tool for cybercrime, but its real danger may lie in how easily such systems can be built—and sold—by anyone
scientificamerican.com
