FACEBOOK ANNOUNCES “SAPFIX” AI TOOL THAT DEBUGS CODE ON ITS OWN

Facebook SapFix and Glow

At Facebook’s @Scale engineering conference, the company announced an artificial intelligence tool called “SapFix.” The tool is a boon for Facebook engineers since it debugs code automatically.

The hybrid AI tool automatically generates fixes for specific bugs in the Facebook code, and then proposes it to the engineers for approval and deployment to production.

According to the company, SapFix is already in use for sending robust, stable code updates to millions of Android devices using Facebook. SapFix run with or without Sapienz, which is Facebook’s intelligent automated software testing tool to do the heavy lifting. Sapienz pinpoints a specific portion of code that was involved in the code crash, which is then passed on to SapFix. The AI tool comes up with a few tactics to generate a patch fix.

“To our knowledge, this marks the first time that a machine-generated fix — with automated end-to-end testing and repair — has been deployed into a codebase of Facebook’s scale,” the blog post mentions.

Facebook is intending to make SapFix open-source for the with the engineering community in the future.

Facebook adds hardware partner support for Glow compiler Apparently, SapFix is not the only advancement Facebook announced in its machine learning journey.

Facebook is officially adding partner support for its Glow Compiler used for hardware acceleration in machine learning. Cadence, Esperanto, Intel, Marvell, and Qualcomm Technologies Inc, a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, all are now part of Glow project which drastically improves silicon products.

Facebook AI and ML

Glow is a compiler software which helps in designing AI and ML-ready silicon products much faster than the previous methodologies. While tech giants like Apple and Google are building their own silicon chips, it seems like Facebook is going to outsource high performing chips while using their own ML code.

GOOGLE, APPLE, AMAZON SUMMONED TO TESTIFY ON CONSUMER DATA PROTECTION TECHNIQUES

Testimony for data privacy

Six big companies including Google, Apple, Twitter, Amazon, AT&T, and Charter have been summoned by the US government to testify before the Senate about the consumer data and privacy mechanisms adopted by them.

The hearing called “Examining Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy” is scheduled for September 26 where the representatives from the companies will answer questions on Commerce, Transportation, and Science.

According to US Senator John Thune, the companies have been called to “explain their approaches to privacy,” and they are planning to implement the GDPR privacy law that has been introduced in the European Union recently.

Apart from discussing the privacy safeguards currently deployed by the companies, the committee would also ask for the suggestions on what steps can be taken by the Congress to “promote clear privacy expectations without hurting innovation.”

Facebook is not included in the list of companies asked to attend the discussion. Earlier, this year Facebook appeared before the Congress for the notorious Cambridge Analytica Scandal, and another meeting was held for discussing the foreign political influence campaigns in the US via social media.

It is mandatory for the companies to attend the meeting. However, Twitter, Charter, and AT&T have confirmed that they would send their representatives to the meeting.

The US government is keen on understanding how the companies are handling users’ data and this is an excellent initiative from the government considering the recent accounts of the data breach.