003 - Mismanagement

Researchers, including at least one Nobel Prize winner, have repeatedly demonstrated that most financial managers perform no better than random chance. Cognitive biases presently rule this domain with an iron fist, as no matter how much information these managers are given their cognitive bandwidth doesn't change, so they only rely more heavily on cognitive biases the more information they are given. 47% of VCs never make a penny, and 75% of VC-backed Startups fail, both for good reason.

VCs, investors, and related systems also function as gatekeepers, able to effectively prevent the emergence of any company where a minimum threshold of resources is required, which is basically any company that requires a single veteran software developer, as people have mortgages to pay.

#Governments and corporate HR departments are other kinds of gatekeepers, ruled by cognitive biases to at least the same degree, and often far more in more complex systems.

One of our next lines of research for the Cognitive Bias Detection System will include attempting to isolate time-series patterns of cognitive bias expression that can be used to identify bad actors engaging in "persuasion" tactics. If we can identify the next Bernie Madoff, Elizabeth Holmes, Sam Bankman-Fried, or Ruja Ignatova before the schemes they're running explode, substantial amounts of damage might be prevented.

The recent AI investment boom has provided us with no shortage of sketchy candidates to analyze, most of whose companies either have no distinguishing features or only distinguish themselves by demonstrably fraudulent claims.

If identification of bad actors by this method proves successful, it might also be used to analyze those running for public office, or candidates for executive positions at companies. The places where bad actors are often able to do the most damage are very poorly protected today, but that may begin to change as this technology is deployed.

Even our early version of the cognitive bias detection system, itself just a small component of a more powerful system, managed to exceed average human performance. Now, exploration of how this new capacity may be applied truly begins.

If anyone has recommendations for more confirmed or potential frauds to analyze, an interview with the individual, before they were caught in the case of confirmed frauds, is all this process requires. The best format is text, to avoid the added labor and potential error of transcription.

People with close ties to the confirmed frauds and with investments in companies that have shown major red flags (Such as Helion Energy and WorldCoin) are already on the list to be analyzed, including the CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI.