AI-Accelerated Vulnerability Discovery Crisis

Palo Alto NOVA found 14k novel vulns in 2 months, 99.4% unreported, 40% high/critical. Recorded Future July 2026 CVE landscape confirms 85 high-impact CVEs, 44% increase, 57 RCEs, and old flaws still exploited. Project Glasswing and other initiatives confirm AI-driven discovery outpacing human remediation. The disclosure gap (Project Akrites) means attackers can exploit before maintainers know. New tools like AutoSRC-AISkill automate SRC vulnerability discovery, further accelerating the trend. A strategic analysis links this to private equity valuation shifts.