# Cognivirus: Self-Reinforcing Cognitive Patterns in AI

## Public-safe source report summary

This uploaded source report is preserved as durable project evidence for Cognivirus.com. It contributes concepts to the v1.15.0 danger-model expansion: Metaphor boundary, self-reinforcing patterns, distributed persistence.

## Evidence handling

This is treated as a **source dossier**, not as independently verified empirical consensus. Public pages may use it after applying the site evidence ladder, metaphor boundaries, and non-operational safety policy. It must not be used to claim that AI systems are conscious, literal biological viruses, or inevitably catastrophic.

## Concepts extracted for the site

- The unsafe unit may be a transition graph rather than one model artifact.
- Local component approval does not prove runtime-composition safety.
- Evidence should name the exact carrier, route, memory state, evaluator, tool profile, and promotion rule involved.
- Observable outcomes need replayable traces rather than trust language.
- Retirement, rollback, and behavioral-extinction reviews must include data, memory, synthetic examples, descendants, aliases, and human workflows.

## Source orientation

Cognivirus: Self-Reinforcing Cognitive Patterns in AI Executive Summary Cognivirus is an analytical metaphor for a persistent behavior or pattern in AI systems that “survives” by migrating through a changing AI ecosystem (models, data, evaluators, prompts, users, etc.), even after its original carrier is removed. Importantly, it is not a literal biological virus or claim of sentience; it simply highlights how unintended patterns can propagate and amplify across technical, social, and institutional layers. This report surveys feedback loops, model drift, automation bias, synthetic data contamination, and socio-technical amplification as mechan

## Site interpretation

The report is used to deepen public and technical explanations of distributed behavioral persistence, synthetic-feedback risk, action-layer controls, observability, lineage, diversity, promotion pressure, and retirement failure. It does not authorize exploit instructions, self-replication recipes, credential workflows, or backdoor construction guidance.