Deni Ellis Béchard

Author of 10 books. Just published a novel about AI: We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine. Link below to order.

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

@higgsfield Cool!

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

The most interesting thing about reporting this article was the range of views held by the roboticists I interviewed.

https://t.co/HSmFJRYC5G

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

And the article draws on @brianchristian's recommendations on how to do battle with the bots.

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

Chatfishing… We’ve spent decades training chatbots to pass the Turing test—teaching them to mimic interest and empathy and keep a conversation going long enough that people think they are human. Now those chatbots are fooling us on dating apps. In fact, they may be better suited to dating apps than we are. “We evolved to speak in person, with gestures, facial expressions, body language and eye contact all helping others complete the half-finished thoughts we sometimes utter. Dating apps (and all chatbot conversations, really) favor machines not just because the apps reduce our embodied lives to text but also because, for the past half-century, computers have been optimized to sound as flawlessly human as possible.” In this article, I look at the many reasons we are so vulnerable to chatfishing.

https://t.co/dvXus2j2NJ

[Bilawal Sidhu @bilawalsidhu]

Netflix is betting that AI augmentation beats AI replacement, and they might be fighting the last war.

There’s basically two ways generative AI eats Hollywood:

1. The Netflix path - slip AI tools into the existing pipeline. Make VFX 10x faster, de-age actors without breaking the bank, let mid-budget shows blow up buildings. Augment the machine, don’t replace it.

2. The nuclear option - scrap the pipeline entirely. Generate everything. Yeah it looks like trash now but give it 18 months. The economics will be so brutal that augmented production looks like handwritten manuscripts vs the printing press.

I think Netflix picked door #1 for a reason that has nothing to do with tech. They just survived the 2023 strikes where AI was the boogeyman. Going full generative would be like torching their own talent relationships while the ashes are still warm.

Sarandos keeps saying “AI won’t make you a good storyteller if you’re not” which is true but also… safe. It’s the perfect soundbite for calming directors who think Sora is coming for their souls.

But let’s also be honest: the jump from 2-minute AI videos to coherent 90-minute narratives is exponentially harder than going from GPT-3.5 to GPT-4. It’s not compute. It’s that stories need memory, emotional throughlines, character arcs that don’t forget themselves halfway through act 2. That’s why every AI media startup is either making making ads and ten second TikToks or augmenting the Hollywood industrial complex. The ROI math works and the runtime doesn’t expose the lobotomy.

But Netflix might be playing 4D chess here. Become the AWS of AI filmmaking workflows. Let every creator on the platform access the same tools that made The Eternaut’s building collapse. Own the picks and shovels.

The fully generative revolution isn’t coming in 12 months for features. But when it does, Netflix will be sitting there with “better tools for real people” while some 22 year old in their garage ships the first actually good AI native show that makes traditional production look paleolithic.

Netflix is choosing augmentation over automation. Smart money says that’s the right play for the next three years. Dumb money remembers that three years is forever in tech.

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

We are still in the early days of applying AI to biological research. Imagine in 10 years...

[Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News @GENbio]

AI Treatment Reprograms and Triggers Cancer Stem Cells to Self-Destruct

Study findings suggest using the drug PF-06409577 to restore CDX2 in colon cancers could cut risk of recurrence and death by up to 50%
@UCSanDiego
#AI #coloncancer #organoids
https://t.co/04RNOR1BcB

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

Just in case you thought this might be a good idea...

[Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives @dom_lucre]

🔥🚨DEVELOPING: This man living in Florida revealed what life is like living with his virtual reality girlfriend and it is as terrifying as you think.

[Ethan Mollick @emollick]

It looks like AI music is following the same path as AI text:
1) Appears to have passed the Turing Test, people are only 50/50 in identifying older Suno vs. human songs (but 60/40 when two songs are the same genre)
2) Same fast development, new models are getting better quickly.

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

Just published this piece about @jakepaul's cameos and how a deepfake marketplace might look.

https://t.co/f2hoNknxZd

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

I recently published this story about New York City rats. It's one of the more enjoyable pieces that I've done recently.

https://t.co/EgVF64wBdY

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

Just published this!
https://t.co/0GfjGbAqQn

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

I just published this article about a fascinating study showing how AI agents can be hijacked with messages in background images. https://t.co/vFjzC0EDVk

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

New article up! https://t.co/UirnYmoCxC

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

Just published this piece on the debate around AI consciousness
https://t.co/BXiGV2ZAdh

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

New article on Cybercab and American myth of the highway @Tesla @robotaxi
https://t.co/bdzhs1RWgq

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

Just published another one...
https://t.co/Knf7OZWt8N

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

For cat lovers, here's an article on AI and cat communication that I just published.
https://t.co/DaKgvfI3lT

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

A recent piece that I did on drone swarms:
https://t.co/qwqQOEPHwU

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

Just a simple explainer on nuclear enrichment in the context of what is happening in Iran
https://t.co/b2ksKHlQD9

[Deni Ellis Béchard @denibechard]

I’ll be speaking in 10 minutes here:

https://t.co/xKYfx5mlSG