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Tech Advisor + Founder & CEO

The Mimic and the Model Batesian mimicry is named after the pioneering naturalist Henry Walter Bates who first observed and studied this phenomenon in the butterflies of the Amazon and outlined his theory of mimicry in a paper that he presented in 1861. What he noticed was that butterflies with a certain coloration were avoided by predators like birds and other insect feeders. The coloration developed by the mimic (the defenseless butterfly) is patterned on the coloration of a toxic insect (the model) that predators avoid. Batesian mimicry is an anti-predation evolutionary maneuver. In Bates' words: "It is not difficult to divine the meaning or final cause of these analogies (that is, mimicry). When we see a species of Moth which frequents flowers in the daytime wearing the appearance of a Wasp, we feel compelled to infer that the imitation is intended to protect the otherwise defenceless insect by deceiving insectivorous animals, which persecute the Moth, but avoid the Wasp." (From 'Contributions to an Insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley,' read November 21, 1861) Deepfakes are reversing the Batesian paradigm: the mimic (a toxic entity) patterns itself closely after the model (a benign entity) for the purpose of predation (luring those who are reassured/attracted by the model to their doom). I'm sure you've heard about the story attached--it's gone viral: "As originally reported by CNN, the fraudster created a digitally manipulated impression of the company’s CFO as well as several other staff members. Convinced they were his coworkers, the employee followed the fake CFO’s instructions and remitted the funds to multiple bank accounts across 15 transfers, according to Techspot." Nature has so many models for us to learn from. We still have a few who stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the sophistication of AI to simulate/mimic human behavior and alter the dynamics of predation. To think that this can be countered by oversight/regulation/guardrails is naive.

Finance Employee Defrauded for $25M by Deepfake CFO

Finance Employee Defrauded for $25M by Deepfake CFO

cfo.com

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