How the Chimera Explains Shadow AI Risk in Enterprise ML Pipelines

#ai #mlops #governance #shadowai

Shadow AI isn't "rogue models."

It's unauthorized hybridization inside your ML pipeline—exactly the pattern the Myth-Tech Bestiary names the Chimera.

The Chimera in One Diagram

        ┌───────────────────────────────┐
        │   SHADOW AI = CHIMERA RISK    │
        └───────────────────────────────┘
                       │
                       ▼
           ┌──────────────────────┐
           │  Hybrid Components   │
           │  (unapproved, mixed) │
           └──────────────────────┘
                       │
                       ▼
           ┌──────────────────────┐
           │    Broken Lineage    │
           │   (unknown origins)  │
           └──────────────────────┘
                       │
                       ▼
           ┌──────────────────────┐
           │   Epistemic Drift    │
           │  (unpredictable ML)  │
           └──────────────────────┘

Where the Chimera Appears in the Pipeline

[ Data ] → [ Features ] → [ Training ] → [ Serving ] → [ Monitoring ]
    │            │              │             │              │
    ▼            ▼              ▼             ▼              ▼
Shadow AI   Hybrid FEs   Mixed Checkpoints  API Chains   Opaque Alerts

Concrete Examples

These are Chimera heads:

LLM-generated feature transformations
HuggingFace models with unknown training data
Fallback LLM calls in inference
"Temporary" enrichment scripts
Personal GPT agents used in ETL

Each one individually harmless.

Collectively catastrophic.

Detection Heuristics

if component.origin == "unknown":
    raise ChimeraWarning()

if pipeline.step.status == "temporary":
    raise ChimeraWarning()

if external_api.used and not security_review.passed:
    raise ChimeraWarning()

Governance Rituals (Developer Edition)

# 1. Declare lineage for every component
lineage_declare(component)

# 2. Require review for external AI
require_review(external_ai_component)

# 3. Update the provenance ledger
provenance_ledger.update(component)

# 4. Quarterly de-chimerization cycle
def quarterly_dechimerize():
    hybrids = identify_unauthorized_hybrids()
    for hybrid in hybrids:
        isolate(hybrid)
        replace_with_governed_equivalent(hybrid)
        restore_lineage(hybrid)