A study of more than 6,000 patches found that even working patches can introduce new bugs, break something else, or are open to bypass.
August 7, 2026
As developers turn to AI models to generate an increasing amount of code, they are also relying on the systems to find vulnerabilities and generate patches. Unfortunately, the models just aren't very good at their jobs.
Recent research suggests that even the latest AI systems only produce effective patches about half the time, according to a report published on Aug. 6 by identity management firm 1Password. To test their efficacy, the company's Off-By-1 research team generated 540 patches for six vulnerabilities disclosed since March using two different large language models (LLMs): OpenAI's ChatGPT-5.5 with Trusted Access for Cyber, and Anthropic's Opus 4.8 with Cyber Verification Program.
Of those 6,080 patches, only 46% of them solved the underlying vulnerability, and many introduced new vulnerabilities into the mix. Even the working patches were often "brittle," fixing only a narrow set of cases or were bypassed with a fairly easy workaround, says Keith Hoodlet, director of security research for 1Password.
