AI Discovery of Coding Bugs Risks Overwhelming Developers

 

 

“The software bug was capable of crashing an operating system used by firewalls, servers and network appliances. It went undetected for over 27 years.

 

Last month, it was caught by Mythos, the latest AI model from Anthropic that has spooked the White House, banking executives and cybersecurity professionals around the world.

 

Welcome to the bug armageddon. AI models like Mythos and others are finding bugs in older software at a rate never seen before.

 

While most of the coding issues may be minor, their sheer volume has amplified the risk that smaller software developers will become overwhelmed with reports of bugs such as the one Mythos found.

 

Thanks to AI, hackers will be able to leverage those bugs more quickly than ever before.

 

The 1998 bug in the OpenBSD operating system was one of thousands Mythos found last month.

 

Anthropic said last week that it is working with about 50 technology companies and organizations to find and fix bugs and currently has no plans to release Mythos to the general public.

 

"We need to know that we can release it safely, and it's not exactly clear how we can do that with full confidence," said Logan Graham, the head of Anthropic's Frontier Red Team, which evaluates AI for risks.

 

Anthropic's rival, OpenAI, is developing a similar campaign, offering a security-focused version of its product to developers so they can patch systems before these bugs are discovered by criminals, according to a person familiar with the company's plans.

 

Google also has an early-access initiative for developers in the works, the company said.

 

Mythos has set off a scramble among technology employees inside major companies, as many have tried to understand how the new model could upend cybersecurity and expose a range of new threats to their products.

 

Numeric, an AI accounting automation platform based in San Francisco, recently kicked off a discussion of its risks in a cybersecurity Slack channel.

 

Some of the greatest risks to companies, Numeric co-founder Anthony Alvernaz said, will likely come from dependencies on so-called "open-source" tools built collaboratively, often by volunteers who may not have the resources to quickly triage bug reports.

 

That infrastructure underpins much of the modern internet, he said.

 

"The code a company writes is almost like the top layer of a cake, and underneath are all of these layers" of open-source software, he said.

 

When he heard about Mythos finding an old OpenBSD bug last week, security researcher Niels Provos wondered if he had been the one who had made the mistake when he wrote some code for OpenBSD 27 years ago while obtaining his doctorate from the University of Michigan. A quick check confirmed his suspicions.

 

"To be honest, I just thought it was hilarious. Because it's code that is so old," said Provos, formerly head of security with the payments company Stripe. "Who knows the last time a human even looked at it."

 

For humans to find and exploit a bug like this would typically require countless hours of research. Most hackers wouldn't have even looked at Provos's old code, assuming that it had been picked over for bugs, Provos said.

 

"Previously there were only a handful of people that could do this," he said. "Now, with these tools, the skill that you need to develop really sophisticated exploits has gone way down."

 

Mythos found the bug -- along with several dozen other issues -- while burning about $20,000 of computing power over a two-day period, Anthropic said.

 

Over the past few weeks, Mythos also has proved to be better at writing code that can exploit those vulnerabilities, Anthropic said.

 

Today, most cyberattacks don't involve previously undiscovered vulnerabilities, known as zero days.

 

Hackers more often break into companies using previously discovered bugs, or by stealing login credentials or using social-engineering techniques. Also, most corporations have other strategies in place to mitigate cyberattacks even if an individual computer is hacked.

 

Earlier this year, Anthropic's software discovered more than 100 bugs in the Firefox browser, and it was even able to write code that could exploit one of these bugs in a test version of the browser. In the real world, Firefox had other security mitigations that would have stopped the attack, which would have made more work for real-world hackers.

 

The cybersecurity capabilities of the latest AI models have won over skeptics over the past few months. They have started to worry that patching a massive and growing number of bugs will lead to an unprecedented logistical challenge -- the AI equivalent of Y2K, a worldwide effort to patch programs around the world that couldn't comprehend a year after 1999. The Y2K warnings were dire, but the technological fixes largely worked.

 

Many cybersecurity professionals believe the AI bug armageddon could play out along similar lines, but successfully patching thousands of vulnerabilities in all kinds of software will take a monumental effort, they say.

 

Top White House officials including National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross are racing to address the threat Mythos and other models pose, working to identify weaknesses in government and coordinate the private sector response.

 

Investors worry that these changes could upend the software industry, and shares of cybersecurity companies dropped last week.

 

Most companies are getting better at patching critical bugs, but AI is driving up the sheer volume of reported bugs and patching everything is taking longer, according to HackerOne, which helps companies triage bug reports. Bug submissions are up 76% from last year and the average time to fix a bug has jumped from 160 days to 230 days during the same period, according to the company.

 

Companies also worry that previously ignored technology products might now become targets, and that, unlike the tech giants, the companies or software developers who build these more obscure products might not have the resources to manage the patching onslaught.

 

"It will get a lot easier to attack random pieces of infrastructure that no one was attacking before," said Thomas Ptacek, a security researcher who is a principal at the cloud computing company Fly.io.” [1]

 

1. AI Discovery of Coding Bugs Risks Overwhelming Developers.McMillan, Robert; Cutter, Chip.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 14 Apr 2026: B1. 

Ar Mičiganas gali tapti JAV dronų sostine?

 

 

Nors daugelis Vakarų ir Ukrainos dronų kompanijų bando atsisakyti kiniškų komponentų, plačiai paplitusi priklausomybė nuo kiniškų retųjų žemių magnetų apsunkina bet kurio gamintojo veiklą. Viską, apie ką jie čia kalba, priimkite su dideliu šaukštu druskos:

 

„Valstybė, žinoma dėl automobilių gamybos, išleidžia milijonus, kad pritrauktų dronų gamintojus, kurie gali atverti naujų klientų automobilių tiekėjams.

 

Daugelį metų prabangus „United Auto Workers“ mokymo centras prie Detroito upės stovėjo tuščias – tai ženklas, kaip smarkiai smuko Amerikos gamyba.

 

Šiandien dronai nuo jo stogo dūzgia lyg kamanės aplink avilį.

 

„Birdstop“, startuolis, gaminantis dronus, stebinčius elektros laidus ir kitą infrastruktūrą, įsikėlė prieš šešis mėnesius. Trys dešimtys jos darbuotojų neužpildo komplekso, kuriame yra garažas su 900 automobilių stovėjimo vietomis ir 375 vietų auditorija. Tačiau erdvė augti buvo pagrindinis pardavimo argumentas, kai įmonė perkėlė savo gamybą čia iš Alabamos, o būstinę – iš Kalifornijos.

 

Neatsitiktinai „Birdstop“ įkūrėjas Keithas Miao apsistojo Detroite, mieste, kuriame jis niekada anksčiau nebuvo apsilankęs praėjusiais metais. Mičigano lyderiai jį puolė, siekdami užimti dalį sparčiai augančios dronų pramonės.

 

„Ieškojome pastato, kuris galėtų tapti JAV dronų pramonės epicentru“, – sakė jis. „Atvirai kalbant, mes negalėtume sau leisti 420 000 kvadratinių pėdų ploto San Francisko centre.“

 

Dėl padidėjusių karinių išlaidų dronams ir jų paplitimo civilinėje srityje, amerikiečių gamybos bepiločių orlaivių sistemų rinka iki 2030 m. turėtų išaugti iki daugiau nei 50 mlrd. JAV dolerių, palyginti su 5 mlrd. JAV dolerių šiais metais, teigia vyresnysis analitikas Austinas Bohligas, Minesotoje įsikūrusios investicinės bankininkystės įmonės „Needham & Company“ vyresnysis analitikas, besispecializuojantis dronų srityje.

 

Neseniai federaliniai apribojimai naujiems „DJI“, Kinijos bendrovės, kuri pagamina mažiausiai 80 procentų mėgėjų ir komercinių dronų, kuriais skraido amerikiečiai, modeliams atvėrė galimybes vietos gamintojams.

 

Įmonės stengiasi sukurti tiekimo grandinę nuo nulio, o valstijos stengiasi būti jos centre.

 

Liepos mėnesį Mičigano gubernatorė Gretchen Whitmer, demokratė, išleido vykdomąją direktyvą, raginančią visoje valstijoje dėti pastangas didinti „pažangaus oro mobilumo“ gamybą, įskaitant dronus ir elektrinius lėktuvus.

 

Remiantis naujausiais pranešimais spaudai, 2025 m. valstija išleido mažiausiai 14 mln. JAV dolerių dronų pramonei skatinti. Projektai apėmė bandymus, ar dronai gali būti naudojami medicininiams mėginiams iš kaimo pacientų rinkti, automobilių dalims pristatyti automobilių prekybos atstovybėms ir laivams Mičigano ežere papildyti, teigiama naujausioje ataskaitoje.

 

„Dangus nebėra riba“, – sakė Justine Johnson, valstijos vyriausioji mobilumo pareigūnė, pažymėdama, kad Mičigano tikslas – priglobti daugiau sparčiai augančių dronų kompanijų nei bet kurioje kitoje pasaulio vietoje.

 

Tai didelis svoris. Dronų gamyklos jau pastatytos Floridoje, Kalifornijoje, Jutoje ir Ohajuje, taip pat Izraelyje, Turkijoje ir Ukrainoje. O skandalas, susijęs su 20 mln. dolerių dotacija Mičigano valstijoje politiškai susijusiai verslininkei, padidino skepticizmą dėl vyriausybės išlaidų verslui. Elektromobilių akumuliatorių bumo, kuriam valstija skyrė dideles paskatas, žlugimas taip pat prisidėjo prie neigiamos reakcijos.

 

Dabar abiejų partijų valstijos įstatymų leidėjai atidžiai tikrina kiekvieną dolerį, išleistą ekonomikos plėtrai, sakė Johnas Mozena, Ekonominės atskaitomybės centro, Mičigane įsikūrusios organizacijos, kasmet skiriančios „Blogiausio metų ekonomikos plėtros sandorio“ apdovanojimą, prezidentas.

 

Tačiau akivaizdu, kad dronai užvaldė daugelio Detroito verslo bendruomenės narių vaizduotę, nes mažėjanti JAV dalis pasaulinėje transporto priemonių gamyboje sukėlė nerimą ir paskatino ieškoti gretimų pramonės šakų.

 

 

„Detroit Manufacturing Systems“, automobilių tiekėja, gaminanti centrines konsoles „Ford“ sunkvežimiams, ieško sutarčių dėl dronų. Jos mažesnė atšaka „Kinetyc“ gavo tik vieną: pastatyti dronų perėmėjo įkrovimo stoteles „Ondas“, kovos su dronais technologijų įmonei.

 

 

Mičiganas siūlo dronų įmonėms dotacijas prototipų kūrimui ir pramoninei automatizacijai. Valstija taip pat finansavo bandymų aikšteles, kurios palengvina dronų įmonėms sunkų Federalinės aviacijos administracijos leidimo skraidyti autonomiškai gavimo procesą.

 

 

„Didžiausia vertė, kurią čia matėme, yra galimybė atlikti bandymus“, – sakė Andrew Zeimenas, „Blueflite“, įmonės, gaminančios krovininius dronus, galinčius pristatyti kraują į avarijų vietas ir organus į ligonines, programos vadovas.

 

 

Neseniai ponas Zeimenas buvo vienintelis asmuo, dirbantis dronų operacijų centre, statomame 11-ame Mičigano centrinės pastato, ikoniškos buvusios traukinių stoties miesto centre, aukšte. Detroite, padedant 2,5 mln. dolerių valstybės dotacijai. Ši vieta patraukli, nes joje įrengti išoriniai jutikliai ir radarai, galintys sekti dronus. Dideli pastato langai leidžia operatoriams stebėti dronus, kurie skraido mylias.

 

Jei nebūtų turėjusi šios galimybės išbandyti miesto aplinkoje, „Blueflite“ galbūt nebūtų pastebėjusi ir ištaisiusi problemos, kai mobiliojo ryšio bokštai trukdo dronų signalams, sakė p. Zeimenas.

 

Valstybės finansavimas taip pat remia „NewLab“ – inovacijų centrą, susijusį su Mičigano centriniu universitetu, kuriame startuoliai gali naudoti įvairias mašinas, kurių ankstyvosiose stadijose gali neįpirkti. „Birdstop“ naudoja „NewLab“ CNC stakles ir lazerinius pjaustytuvus, kad sukurtų savo dronų laktas. Ten yra ir bendrovės „Airspace Link“, kuri parduoda programinę įrangą miestams ir federalinėms agentūroms, būstinė.

 

Danas Gilbertas, milijardierius „Rocket Mortgage“ įkūrėjas, plačiai pripažįstamas už Detroito centro atgaivinimą, atliko svarbų vaidmenį pritraukiant dronų bendroves. Jo rizikos kapitalo įmonė „Detroit Venture Partners“ suteikė „Airspace Link“ pradinį kapitalą, o jis pats yra „Birdstop“ valdybos narys.

 

Pono Gilberto nekilnojamojo turto įmonė įsigijo U.A.W. mokymo centrą iš kito vystytojo po to, kai korupcijos tyrimas privertė profsąjungą jį parduoti. Praėjusią vasarą prieš „Reindustrialize“ konferenciją jis susitiko su „Birdstop“ įkūrėju p. Miao ir pasiūlė „Birdstop“ patalpas, sakė p. Miao.

 

Poną Miao sudomino galimybė persikelti į Detroitą, tačiau jis norėjo sužinoti, ar galėtų vietoje įsigyti reikalingų komponentų dronams gaminti.

 

„Jei esate DJI ir esate Šendžene, nusileidę laiptais turite 150 kiekvieno komponento variantų“, – sakė jis. „Jungtinėse Valstijose nusileidę laiptais, yra tiesiogine prasme nulis su vienu variantu.“

 

Jis pasiuntė savo inžinerijos viceprezidentą Jatiną Kolekarą ieškoti automobilių tiekėjų, ar jie galėtų pagaminti „Birdstop“ reikalingus komponentus. P. Kolekaras nustatė, kad automobilių galinio vaizdo kameros, maži elektros varikliai ir akumuliatoriai tokioms sistemoms kaip valytuvai galėtų būti pritaikyti dronų pramonei.

 

Pasak p. Miao, gavusi 100 000 USD „Make It in Michigan“ dotaciją, „Birdstop“ kuria didelės skiriamosios gebos kamerą dronams, kuri kainuos dešimtadaliu pigiau nei šiuo metu Jungtinėse Valstijose siūlomos alternatyvos. Jis ketina ją gaminti pats, kol paklausa bus pakankamai didelė, kad sudomintų automobilių tiekėją.

 

Paskutinė detalė, kuri turėjo susidėlioti į savo vietas, buvo kliento atsiliepimai. Ir čia „Michigan“ pasiteisino. „Birdstop“ bendradarbiavo su Detroite įsikūrusia įmone „Truck Specialized Parking Services“, kuri valdo sunkvežimių aikšteles visoje šalyje, ir norėjo naudoti dronus, kad jie būtų saugesni ir efektyvesni.

 

Šiuo metu „Birdstop“ rankomis surenka apie 150 dronų per mėnesį kabinose, kurios anksčiau priklausė U.A.W. biuro darbuotojams. Tačiau p. Miao turi didelių planų įrengti automatizuotas gamybos linijas ne tik dronams, bet ir dronų komponentams gaminti.

 

„Norime matyti ateitį, kuri bus po 12–18 mėnesių, kai galbūt bus ne 150, o 15 komponentų variantų“, – sakė jis.” [1]

 

1. Can Michigan Become the U.S. Drone Capital? Stockman, Farah; Jarrus, Sylvia.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Apr 14, 2026.

Can Michigan Become the U.S. Drone Capital?

 

 

While many western and Ukrainian drone companies are trying to move away from Chinese components, the widespread dependence on Chinese rare-earth magnets makes it challenging for any manufacturer. Take with a huge spoon of salt everything that they are talking about here:

 

“The state, known for making cars, is spending millions to entice drone manufacturers that can bring new business to auto suppliers.

 

For years, the palatial United Auto Workers training facility on the Detroit River sat empty, a sign of how far American manufacturing had fallen.

 

Today, drones buzz from its rooftop like bumblebees circling a hive.

 

Birdstop, a start-up that makes drones that monitor electrical wires and other infrastructure, moved in six months ago. Its three dozen employees don’t fill the complex, which includes a garage with 900 parking spaces and a 375-seat auditorium. But room to grow was a key selling point when the company moved its manufacturing here from Alabama and its headquarters from California.

 

It was no accident that Birdstop’s founder, Keith Miao, landed in Detroit, a city he had never visited before last year. Leaders in Michigan courted him as part of a push to capture a slice of the rapidly growing drone industry.

 

“We were searching for a building that could become the epicenter of the U.S. drone industry,” he said. “Frankly, we wouldn’t be able to afford 420,000 square feet in downtown San Francisco.”

 

Thanks to ramped-up military spending on drones and their proliferation in civilian uses, the market for American-made unmanned aerial systems is expected to grow to more than $50 billion by 2030, from $5 billion this year, according to Austin Bohlig, a senior analyst who specializes in drones at Needham & Company, a Minnesota-based investment banking firm.

 

Recent federal restrictions on new models from DJI, the Chinese company that makes at least 80 percent of the hobbyist and commercial drones that Americans fly, have created an opening for domestic manufacturers.

 

Companies are scrambling to build a supply chain from scratch, and states are vying to be at the center of it.

 

In July, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a Democrat, issued an executive directive calling for a statewide effort to scale up “advanced air mobility” manufacturing, which includes drones and electric planes.

 

The state spent at least $14 million in 2025 to boost the drone industry, according to recent press statements. Projects included testing whether drones could be used to collect medical samples from rural patients, deliver auto parts to car dealerships and resupply ships on Lake Michigan, according to a recent report.

 

“The sky is no longer the limit,” said Justine Johnson, the state’s chief mobility officer, noting that Michigan’s goal is to host more high-growth drone companies than anywhere in the world.

 

That’s a heavy lift. Drone factories have already been built in Florida, California, Utah and Ohio, as well as Israel, Turkey and Ukraine. And a scandal involving a $20 million Michigan grant to a politically connected businesswoman has increased skepticism of government spending on businesses. The collapse of the electric vehicle battery boom, which received hefty incentives from the state, also contributed to the backlash.

 

Now state lawmakers from both parties are scrutinizing every dollar spent on economic development, said John Mozena, president of the Center for Economic Accountability, a Michigan-based organization that gives an annual award for “Worst Economic Development Deal of the Year.”

 

But it’s clear that drones have captured the imagination of many in Detroit’s business community, as the declining U.S. share of global vehicle production has caused anxiety and prompted a search for adjacent industries.

 

Detroit Manufacturing Systems, an automotive supplier that makes center consoles for Ford trucks, is hunting for drone contracts. Its smaller-scale arm, Kinetyc, scored just one: building docking stations for a drone interceptor for Ondas, a counterdrone technology firm.

 

Michigan offers drone companies grants for prototyping and industrial automation. The state has also funded testing grounds that make it easier for drone companies to undertake the arduous process of getting Federal Aviation Administration approval to fly autonomously.

 

“The biggest value that we’ve seen here is the ability to test,” said Andrew Zeimen, program manager for Blueflite, a company that makes cargo drones capable of delivering blood to crash sites and organs to hospitals.

 

On a recent day, Mr. Zeimen was the only person working out of a drone operations center being built on the 11th floor of Michigan Central, the iconic former train station in downtown Detroit, with the help of a $2.5 million grant from the state. The site is attractive because it is equipped with external sensors and radars that can keep track of the drones. The building’s large windows allow operators to observe the drones flying for miles.

 

Without this chance to test in an urban environment, Blueflite might not have caught and corrected an issue with cell towers interfering with a drone’s signals, Mr. Zeimen said.

 

State funding also supports NewLab, an innovation hub affiliated with Michigan Central where start-ups can use a variety of machines they may be unable to afford in their early stages. Birdstop uses NewLab’s CNC machines and laser cutters to build perches for its drones. Airspace Link, a company that sells software to cities and federal agencies, has its headquarters there.

 

Dan Gilbert, the billionaire founder of Rocket Mortgage, who is widely credited for reviving downtown Detroit, has played a key role in wooing drone companies. His venture capital firm, Detroit Venture Partners, provided Airspace Link seed money, and he serves on Birdstop’s board.

 

Mr. Gilbert’s real estate firm acquired the U.A.W. training facility from another developer after a corruption investigation forced the union to sell it. He met Mr. Miao, Birdstop’s founder, before the Reindustrialize conference last summer and offered Birdstop the space, Mr. Miao said.

 

Mr. Miao was intrigued by the possibility of moving to Detroit, but wanted to see if he would be able to procure the components he needed to build drones locally.

 

“If you are DJI and you are in Shenzhen, you walk downstairs and have 150 options for every single component,” he said. “In the United States, you walk downstairs and there are quite literally zero to one options.”

 

He sent his vice president of engineering, Jatin Kolekar, to scout auto suppliers to see if they might be able to make the components that Birdstop needed. Mr. Kolekar determined that backup cameras for cars and small electric motors and batteries for systems like windshield wipers could be repurposed for the drone industry.

 

With help from a $100,000 Make It in Michigan grant, Birdstop is developing a high-resolution camera for drones that will be one-tenth the cost of options currently available in the United States, Mr. Miao said. He intends to make it in-house until demand is large enough to interest an auto supplier.

 

The last piece that needed to fall into place was a customer to offer feedback. Here, too, Michigan came through. Birdstop was connected with Truck Specialized Parking Services, a Detroit-based company that manages truck yards across the country and wanted to use drones to make them safer and more efficient.

 

For now, Birdstop assembles about 150 drones per month by hand in cubicles that once belonged to U.A.W. clerical workers. But Mr. Miao has big plans to set up automated production lines to build not only drones but drone components.

 

“We want to see a future that’s 12 to 18 months away where there are maybe not 150 but 15 options” for components, he said.” [1]

 

1. Can Michigan Become the U.S. Drone Capital? Stockman, Farah; Jarrus, Sylvia.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Apr 14, 2026.