2018 in technology and computing

Significant events that have occurred in 2018 in all fields of technology, including computing, robotics, electronics, as well as any other areas of technology as well, including any machines, devices, or other technological developments, occurrences, and items.

January

• 1 January – Researchers at Harvard, writing in Nature Nanotechnology , reported the first single lens that can focus all colours of the rainbow in the same spot and in high resolution, previously only achievable with multiple lenses. ^{[1] [2]}
• 2 January – Physicists at Cornell University reported the creation of "muscle" for shape-changing, cell-sized robots. ^{[3] [4]}
• 3 January
  • Computer researchers reported discovering two major security vulnerabilities, named "Meltdown" and "Spectre," in the microprocessors inside almost all computers in the world. ^{[5] [6] [7]}
  • Scientists in Rome unveiled the first bionic hand with a sense of touch that can be worn outside a laboratory. ^[8]
• 4 January – MIT researchers devised a new method to create stronger and more resilient nanofibers. ^{[9] [10]}
• 15 January – Artificial intelligence programs developed by Microsoft and Alibaba achieved better average performance on a Stanford University reading and comprehension test than human beings. ^{[11] [12] [13]}

February

• 6 February – The Falcon Heavy test flight successfully launched at 20:45 UTC. ^[14]

March

• 17 March – Cambridge Analytica is exposed as having unconsentfully harvested data from millions of Facebook users, leading to lawsuits and fines against the latter, the shutdown of the former and the tarnishing of the latter's public reputation. ^[15]

April

• 20 April – The Nintendo Labo is released. ^[16]

August

• 24 August – The Bugatti Divo is revealed at “The Quail – A Motorsports Gathering“ in California, United States. ^[17]

September

• 4 September – The Xbox Adaptive Controller, designed to “adapt[...] input for gamers with limited mobility”, is released. ^[18]

October

• 11 October – The world's fastest camera, able to capture 10 trillion frames per second, is announced by the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in Quebec, Canada. ^[19]

November

• 1 November – At around 11 AM, more than 20,000 Google employees worldwide participated in the 2018 Google walkouts to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment cases, along with other grievances. ^{[20] [21]}

References

1. Burrows, Leah (1 January 2018). "Single metalens focuses all colors of the rainbow in one point". Harvard. Archived from the original on 2025-12-02. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
2. Rogers, Shelby (7 January 2018). "Harvard Researchers Have Developed a Metalens That Could Revolutionize Optics". Interesting Engineering. Archived from the original on 2025-03-21. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
3. "Physicists build muscle for shape-changing, cell-sized robots". Science Bulletin. 2018-01-04. Archived from the original on 2025-10-15. Retrieved 2025-12-31.
4. Miskin, Marc Z.; Dorsey, Kyle J.; Bircan, Baris; Han, Yimo; Muller, David A.; McEuen, Paul L.; Cohen, Itai (2 January 2018). "Graphene-based bimorphs for micron-sized, autonomous origami machines". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 115 (3): 466–470. Bibcode:2018PNAS..115..466M. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1712889115 . PMC   5776973 . PMID   29295917.
5. Metz, Cade; Perlroth, Nicole (3 January 2018). "Researchers Discover Two Major Flaws in the World's Computers". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2025-08-30. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
6. Warren, Tom (3 January 2018). "Intel's processors have a security bug and the fix could slow down PCs". The Verge . Archived from the original on 2025-11-11. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
7. Bright, Peter (5 January 2018). "Meltdown and Spectre: Here's what Intel, Apple, Microsoft, others are doing about it". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on 2018-01-05. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
8. Walsh, Fergus (3 January 2018). "Woman receives bionic hand with sense of touch". BBC News . Archived from the original on 2025-09-07. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
9. Chandler, David L. (5 January 2018). "Ultrafine fibers have exceptional strength". MIT. Archived from the original on 2025-08-09. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
10. "U.S. researchers develop new technique to produce ultra-strong, resilient nanofibers for protective armors". Xinhua. 7 January 2018. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
11. Linn, Allison (15 January 2018). "Microsoft creates AI that can read a document and answer questions about it as well as a person". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2025-12-04. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
12. Pham, Sherisse (15 January 2018). "Computers are getting better than humans at reading". CNN. Archived from the original on 2026-01-13. Retrieved 2025-12-31.
13. Fenner, Robert (15 January 2018). "Alibaba's AI Outguns Humans in Reading". Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on 2018-01-15. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
14. Uri, John (2023-02-06). "5 Years Ago: First Flight of the Falcon Heavy Rocket - NASA". NASA. Archived from the original on 2025-11-16. Retrieved 2025-11-16.
15. Fernando, James (2025-01-28). "Cambridge Analytica: Overview, History, and Example". Investopedia. Archived from the original on 2025-12-02. Retrieved 2026-01-22.
16. McWhertor, Michael (2018-01-17). "Nintendo reveals Labo, a DIY 'build-and-play experience' for Switch". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2018-01-18. Retrieved 2026-01-22.
17. Communications, Bugatti (2018-07-10). ""Happiness is not around the corner. It is the corner." – Bugatti Newsroom". newsroom.bugatti.com. Archived from the original on 2026-01-03. Retrieved 2026-01-03.
18. Stevens, Colin (2018-09-04). "Xbox Adaptive Controller Available Today". IGN. Archived from the original on 2026-01-03. Retrieved 2026-01-03.
19. "World's fastest camera freezes time at 10 trillion frames per second", ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 12 October 2018, archived from the original on 2025-12-08, retrieved 12 October 2018
20. "Google employee walkout: Engineers and other workers plan to walk off the job today at 11:10 a.m. over sexual harassment scandals - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. 2018-11-01. Archived from the original on 2025-06-27. Retrieved 2026-01-23.
21. D'Onfro, Jillian (2018-11-03). "Google walkouts showed what the new tech resistance looks like, with lots of cues from union organizing". CNBC. Archived from the original on 2019-04-05. Retrieved 2026-01-23.