By facilitating greater participation,richer content presentation,more efficient knowledge translation,and more focused science outreach,generative AI has the potential to enhance science communication and popularization significantly.This technology also introduces two different kinds of ethical risks.On the one hand,generative AI raises technical,ethical questions about information authenticity,fairness,security,bias,and copyright.On the other hand,problems historically linked to science popularization may get worse,such as oversimplification,a lack of scientific communication,the erosion of scientific authority,and populism.Consequently,it is crucial to investigate the application potential of generative artificial intelligence in science popularization practices going forward,as well as to raise the technical awareness,application capabilities,and supervision level of the general public,science popularization professionals,and regulators.Additionally,it is necessary to guarantee the accuracy,privacy security,and fairness of the content produced for science popularization.