Rounding up the biggest tech failures of 2024: What went wrong this year?
In the fast-paced world of innovation, every success comes with the risk of making missteps, miscalculating, or not delivering on promises.
The biggest tech story of 2024 — the CrowdStrike outage that impacted businesses and consumers across the country — was also one of the most notable failures of the year. But CrowdStrike’s story is more than just a story of failure – it’s also a testament to resilience and recovery.
TechRepublic has compiled the year’s most significant tech failures, and explored how they were addressed — or left unresolved.
WATCH: These are the hottest cyber security news of 2024.
CrowdStrike bug traps passengers in a giant blue screen of death
Contents
- 1 CrowdStrike bug traps passengers in a giant blue screen of death
- 2 Major data breaches affected communications networks and personal data
- 3 Google AI overviews face ‘shaky’ launch
- 4 Privacy concerns cloud Microsoft’s recall
- 5 Wearable AI rises – and falls
- 6 It’s been a tough year for Intel
- 7 Tesla autonomous products are in a shaky state
On the morning of Friday, July 19, the CrowdStrike Cloud Security Platform released a content configuration update for Windows. A bug in the content verifier used in the update caused a set of errors that spread across CrowdStrike’s customers. That customer group included approximately 8.5 million Windows devices in businesses, airports and emergency services departments.
CrowdStrike fixed the issue 78 minutes after the update. However, the affected machines needed to be manually rebooted, creating substantial work for his team over the weekend.
Major data breaches affected communications networks and personal data
Two major data breaches remind cybersecurity professionals to remain vigilant. In August, the UK’s National Public Data – a consumer background check service – suffered a breach that exposed Social Security numbers among 2.7 billion data records. The exploit sparked conversation about legal protections for personal data.
In September, The Wall Street Journal reported that a group of threat actors linked to China had gained access to US broadband networks exclusively through Cisco routers. Both US and international cybersecurity agencies have issued warnings about a threat group called Salt Typhoon.
Google AI overviews face ‘shaky’ launch
Google introduced its AI-powered answers in search this year, to mixed success. In May, AI’s reactions went as viral as Google appears to be recommended “Eat at least one small stone per day” and confidently repeated a political conspiracy theory. The comment about the rocks was taken from a satire site, and the conspiracy theory came from Reddit. Google banned in response user generated content Worked on AI observation and detecting “redundant questions”.
The situation highlighted how generic AI pulls information from the internet.
Privacy concerns cloud Microsoft’s recall
2024 was the year of the AI PC, with many different tech companies competing to identify which AI feature would gain the most traction.
Microsoft bet on the appeal of using AI to control PCs or find files using natural language. Its Recall feature answered the question “Where did I put the confirmation email for the restaurant for Saturday?” Promised to answer such questions easily. However, this feature came at a cost: recalling captured screenshots of active windows every few seconds, saving them as a timeline, raising concerns about privacy and data usage.
Microsoft delayed public disclosure of the recall. As of December 6, recalls are available in preview For Windows Insiders.
Wearable AI rises – and falls
This year two innovative AI products experimented with form factors.
The Human Pin was designed as an AI assistant attached to clothing, while the makers of the Rabbit R1 envisioned it as a replacement for a smartphone. PIN received normally negative reviews And a portion of expected sales. Rabbit R1 Followed common pathThese tools are clever because generative AI can open up new possibilities for form factors.
Both the Humane and Rabbit devices are still on sale. But widespread adoption of those form factors — including smart glasses — has been a difficult road, even for tech giants. Ultimately, wearable, AI-first devices take off in 2024.
It’s been a tough year for Intel
Widespread instability and crashes seen in Intel Core 13th and 14th generation desktop processors YearIntel discovered a glitch microcode algorithm Due to which there was trouble this summer. Eventually they distributed a patch. Intel stock and market share have declined as rivals NVIDIA and AMD have taken advantage of the generative AI boom. Intel may recover if CPU sales improve next year, but for now, they missed the boat on the AI hardware boom despite a portfolio of reliable products.
Tesla autonomous products are in a shaky state
Tesla’s ambitious self-driving mode faces multiple setbacks since massive recall last yearIncluding the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is investigating the automaker four specific accidentsAnother investigation is linked to self-driving mode dozens of deathsAutopilot claimed in Tesla’s Q4 vehicle safety report fewer accidents miles per million compared to the average American vehicle.
Meanwhile, further reports revealed that several humanoid Tesla robots were driven by humansTesla doubled down, releasing a video of its Optimus robot operating “by itself” in a factory.
Electric car sales to decline in 2024 Other automakers mature In the “green” market, however, Tesla remains a strong contender.
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