Key Takeaways
- Hackers are using AI to discover and exploit zero‑day vulnerabilities at unprecedented speed and low cost, dramatically changing the offensive cyber landscape.
- The spyware market, which relies on a steady flow of zero‑days, is poised to expand as AI lowers financial and technical barriers for both existing vendors and new entrants.
- AI‑driven offensive capabilities also empower non‑traditional actors—such as organized crime—to deploy sophisticated exploits that were once out of reach.
- Defensive AI can match these advances by automating vulnerability detection, alert triage, and containment, but it requires deliberate policy support to scale.
- Policymakers should (1) fund and test defensive AI tools, (2) maintain sustained pressure on spyware vendors through sanctions and international coordination, and (3) accelerate the adoption of memory‑safe programming languages to shrink the attack surface.
The Rising Threat of AI‑Powered Offensive Cyber Operations
Over the past six months, nation‑states and criminal groups have increasingly woven artificial intelligence into their offensive cyber toolkits. AI’s ability to rapidly analyze massive codebases, predict exploitable patterns, and automate complex tasks has turned what used to be a painstaking, talent‑intensive process into a faster, cheaper endeavor. This shift is not merely incremental; it is redefining the economics of cyber attacks and forcing defenders to reconsider how they allocate resources and prioritize threats.
AI’s Breakthrough in Zero‑Day Discovery
A watershed moment arrived when Google disclosed that hackers, for the first time, used AI to uncover and weaponize a zero‑day flaw capable of bypassing two‑factor authentication across its product suite. Zero‑days are prized because they are unknown to vendors and lack patches, making them both rare and expensive to develop. By collapsing the cost, time, and expertise needed to find such vulnerabilities, AI is democratizing access to the most potent class of exploits, thereby altering the offensive playing field in ways current defenses are not yet equipped to match.
Implications for the Spyware Market
The spyware industry—companies that sell surveillance tools targeting mobile and desktop devices—depends on a continual pipeline of zero‑days to maintain efficacy. In 2025, spyware vendors topped Google’s list of zero‑day exploiters, outpacing even nation‑state actors such as China. AI’s capacity to accelerate zero‑day discovery means that this pipeline can be filled more cheaply and quickly, eroding a technical barrier that once limited the scale and profitability of spyware operations.
How AI Lowers Barriers for Existing Vendors
For established spyware firms, AI augments every stage of the exploit lifecycle: from scanning source code for subtle weaknesses to mapping attack surfaces and refining payloads. This automation reduces the need for highly specialized talent, allowing vendors to launch more frequent campaigns, sustain longer access cycles despite patching, and spread the financial risk of development across a larger volume of operations. Consequently, sanctions or other cost‑imposing measures become less effective at rendering these vendors unprofitable.
Facilitating New Entrants into the Spyware Industry
By cutting the capital and expertise required to develop spyware capabilities, AI lowers the entry barrier for new players. Emerging vendors can now acquire or build sophisticated surveillance tools with modest investment, expanding the market beyond a handful of well‑funded actors. This proliferation raises significant national‑security and human‑rights concerns, as these tools are frequently used to monitor, intimidate, and suppress dissidents, journalists, and even ordinary citizens—both domestically and abroad.
Expanding the Actor Base Beyond Traditional Vendors
AI’s automation of expertise also democratizes the use of advanced exploits. Pre‑packaged kits that bundle iOS zero‑days such as Coruna and DarkSword have begun circulating outside the traditional vendor ecosystem, reaching organized crime groups and other actors that previously lacked the funds or technical depth to employ such weapons. Evidence of this trend indicates a broadening threat landscape where the line between state‑sponsored espionage, criminal enterprise, and hack‑for‑hire services is increasingly blurred.
Defensive AI: A Countermeasure in the Same Arsenal
While AI amplifies offensive power, it also offers defensive advantages. Autonomous cybersecurity platforms—exemplified by SentinelOne’s system—can continuously audit code, detect anomalous behavior, and contain zero‑day supply‑chain attacks before they cause damage. Defensive AI agents excel at monitoring network traffic, correlating alerts, and initiating rapid containment protocols, often outpacing human analysts. To harness this potential, policymakers must create conditions that allow defensive AI solutions to scale alongside the evolving threat environment.
Policy Recommendations: Boost Defensive AI Capabilities
The United States should treat defensive AI as a strategic priority on par with offensive cyber operations. Federal investment in stress‑test programs, pilot projects, and sector‑specific resilience exercises can validate the effectiveness of AI‑driven defenses against agentic, AI‑enhanced attacks. Supporting private firms that develop autonomous detection and response tools will help build a market capable of keeping pace with adversaries who are already exploiting AI for offense.
Policy Recommendations: Sustain Pressure on Spyware Vendors
Given that spyware vendors remain the most prolific consumers of zero‑days, maintaining and expanding sanctions, entity listings, and international cooperative efforts is essential. Continuous pressure prevents these firms from profiting from AI‑enhanced exploits and discourages the emergence of new surveillance businesses. Engaging forums such as the Wassenaar Arrangement and the UN Group of Governmental Experts can help establish norms and accountability mechanisms that keep the spyware industry in check.
Policy Recommendations: Accelerate Memory‑Safe Adoption
Memory‑safe languages like Rust eliminate entire classes of vulnerabilities that spyware exploits target—such as buffer overflows and use‑after‑free errors. The U.S. government has already begun urging federal agencies and contractors to transition to memory‑safe code, with CISA and NSA reinforcing this push in mid‑2025. Accelerating this migration, particularly in firmware and operating‑system layers frequently attacked by spyware, will systematically shrink the attack surface and reduce the payoff for AI‑assisted exploit discovery.
Conclusion: Balancing Offense and Defense in the AI Era
The integration of artificial intelligence into offensive cyber operations has ushered in a new era where zero‑day discovery is faster, cheaper, and more accessible than ever before. This evolution empowers both established spyware vendors and a broader range of actors—including criminal groups and emerging nation‑states—to conduct sophisticated surveillance and disruption campaigns. However, the same AI capabilities can be turned inward to strengthen defenses through automated vulnerability detection, rapid incident response, and resilient system design. A balanced policy approach—investing in defensive AI, sustaining pressure on malicious spyware actors, and advancing memory‑safe programming—will be vital to safeguard U.S. national security and uphold human rights in an increasingly AI‑driven threat landscape.