Within the fast-paced world of innovation, each breakthrough carries the danger of missteps, miscalculations, or under-delivering guarantees.
The most important tech story of 2024 — the CrowdStrike outage that affected companies and customers nationwide — was additionally one of many yr’s most notable failures. However the CrowdStrike story is greater than only a story of failure — it’s additionally a testomony to resilience and restoration.
TechRepublic has compiled essentially the most important tech flops of the yr, exploring how they have been addressed — or left unresolved.
SEE: These are the most well liked cybersecurity information tales of 2024.
CrowdStrike bug strands vacationers amid mass blue screens of dying
On the morning of Friday, July 19, the CrowdStrike cloud safety platform launched a content material configuration replace for Home windows. A bug within the Content material Validator used within the replace prompted a cascade of errors that unfold throughout CrowdStrike’s prospects. That buyer group included about 8.5 million Home windows units in companies, airports, and emergency companies departments.
CrowdStrike fastened the issue on their finish 78 minutes after the replace. Nevertheless, affected machines wanted to be rebooted manually, which created ample work for his or her group over the weekend.
Main knowledge breaches hit communications networks and private knowledge
Two main knowledge breaches reminded cybersecurity professionals to remain on their toes. In August, the U.Ok.’s Nationwide Public Information — a shopper background examine service — suffered a breach that uncovered Social Safety numbers amongst 2.7 billion knowledge data. The exploitation sparked conversations about authorized protections for private knowledge.
In September, the Wall Avenue Journal reported a bunch of risk actors related to China had gained entry to U.S. broadband networks, particularly by way of Cisco routers. Each American and worldwide cybersecurity companies have issued warnings concerning the risk group referred to as Salt Storm.
Google AI Overviews confronted a ‘rocky’ launch
Google launched its AI-powered solutions in search this yr, with blended success. In Could, the AI’s responses went viral as Google seemingly advisable “consuming a minimum of one small rock per day” and confidently repeated a political conspiracy idea. The remark about rocks was taken from a satirical website, and the conspiracy idea got here from Reddit. In response, Google restricted user-generated content material in AI Overviews and labored on detecting “nonsensical queries.”
The state of affairs highlighted the boundaries of how generative AI pulls data from the web.
Privateness issues cloud Microsoft’s Recall
2024 was the yr of the AI PC, with many various tech corporations racing to determine which AI options would acquire essentially the most traction.
Microsoft wager on the enchantment of utilizing AI to regulate PCs or search information utilizing pure language. Its Recall function promised to intuitively reply questions like “The place’d I put the affirmation e mail for the restaurant for Saturday?” Nevertheless, this comfort got here at a price: Recall captured screenshots of lively home windows each few seconds, saving them as a timeline, elevating issues about privateness and knowledge utilization.
Microsoft delayed Recall’s public look. As of Dec. 6, Recall is obtainable in preview to Home windows Insiders.
Wearable AI rises — and falls
Two novel AI merchandise experimented with type issue this yr.
The Humane pin was designed as an AI assistant clipped to clothes, whereas the makers of the Rabbit R1 pitched it as a alternative for a smartphone. The pin acquired typically detrimental critiques and a fraction of the anticipated gross sales. Rabbit R1 adopted a comparable path. These units are intelligent as a result of generative AI may open new potentialities for type elements.
Each Humane and Rabbit units are nonetheless on sale. However the broad adoption of these type elements — together with sensible glasses — has been an uphill highway even for the tech giants. In the end, wearable, AI-first units have been a lifeless finish in 2024.
Intel has had a tough yr
Intel Core thirteenth and 14th Gen desktop processors noticed widespread instability and crashes for years. Intel found a defective microcode algorithm that prompted issues this summer time. They ultimately delivered a patch. Intel inventory and market share have fallen as rivals NVIDIA and AMD make the most of the generative AI increase. Intel could recuperate if CPU gross sales enhance subsequent yr, however for now, they missed the boat on the AI {hardware} increase regardless of a portfolio of dependable merchandise.
Tesla autonomous merchandise are on shaky floor
Tesla’s formidable self-driving mode has confronted a number of setbacks since mass remembers final yr, together with the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration investigating the automaker about 4 particular accidents. One other investigation linked the self-driving mode to dozens of deaths. Tesla’s This autumn automobile security report claimed Autopilot had fewer accidents per million miles than the common U.S. automobile.
In the meantime, additional experiences revealed that many humanoid Tesla robots have been operated by people. Tesla doubled down, releasing a video of an Optimus robotic working “on my own” in a manufacturing facility.
Gross sales of the electrical automobiles fell in 2024 as different automakers matured within the “inexperienced” market, though Tesla stays a robust contender.