Facebook engineers recently created AI tools that localize and fix bugs in the system automatically: SapFix and Sapienz. The SapFix tool is hybrid, because it requires both AI and human interaction, whereas Sapienz is used by Facebook to detect software bugs. SapFix can work on its own but works best in combination with Sapienz: once Sapienz has found a bug, SapFix will find a solution.

Sapienz detects the exact points in the code that need adaptation and then sends this information to SapFix. Next, SapFix has several options to fix this bug. For small bugs, reversion of the initial code during submission is the solution. This reversion can be either whole of partial. For more complex bugs, SapFix searches through human-created templates of previous bug fixes to see whether a similar bug has already been solved earlier and the same strategy can be implemented with the current bug. If it appears the human-based solutions don’t fit as well, SapFix modifies existing code until a potential solution has been found.

Subsequently, the bug fix must be tested for success, which is done by answering the following questions. Do compiling mistakes exist, does the bug prevail and does the fix initiate new bugs? An automated test is run to answer these questions, where after the fix is send to a human engineer for inspection. This means SapFix cannot implement its own solutions, since it may as well implement a solution that would have been rejected by a human. Though, SapFix and Sapienz are one of the first AI tools that automatically debug a system on a scale as large as Facebook’s. This can create new opportunities for machine-generated bug fixing, as developers now spend less time debugging and have more time to generate what’s next.

Right now, SapFix and Sapienz are private, but Facebook announced these tools may be available for open source in the future. Therefore, these tools may help improving AI-based code development and fixing, not only for Facebook but for other companies that put innovation at a high stake. What do you think of these tools and how will they develop in the future?

Finding and fixing software bugs automatically with SapFix and Sapienz

Who doesn’t like chocolate? I, the chocolate lover, am always surprised when someone says they don’t like it. Until I talked with someone who does like the chocolate itself, but not the process around the making of chocolate and therefore she chose to ban chocolate out of her life. Regular supermarket chocolate is a quite cheap product in the Netherlands, which on the other hand means cocoa farmers work their ass of to get you the delicious bar in the cheapest way possible. And how to they do this? They use slaves. You may think this is an ancient concept, yet the opposite is true. That’s the reason why Tony’s Chocolonely was founded: to create a world with 100% slave-free chocolate.

To make sure their chocolate is 100% slave-free, Tony’s decided to create the Beantracker. This is an application that shows where the cocoa beans come from and where they go, the money flow and that processes all other relevant information. With the Beantracker, you can exactly see where and how the beans are retrieved, so you know where to go when you find modern slavery or child labour. The Beantracker is already a big step towards cruelty-free chocolate, however this was not enough for Tony’s. Tony’s partnered up with Accenture to experiment on developing a system like Beantracker, but then in blockchain. In that way, it would be possible to see exactly where the beans are at what time. With this blockchain tracker, the chocolate chain could be made fully transparent and the beans could be tracked in real-time. An end-to-end value chain which shows each and everyone’s responsibility for different parts of the chain.

As fruitful as this development may seem, the blockchain experiment was unfortunately not successful enough to be put to use by Tony’s Chocolonely. For example, not all transactions were traceable, and some developed features were redundant. Nonetheless, it is never wrong to start experimenting with new technologies in my opinion. What do you think Tony’s could have done instead of blockchain? Did they make the right choice in not continuing the development of a blockchain tracker?

https://tonyschocolonely.com/nl/nl/onze-missie/nieuws/blockchain-kunnen-wij-er-traceerbare-chocolade-van-maken

https://www.accenture-insights.nl/en-us/articles/improving-physical-supply-chains-with-blockchain

As new digital technologies are on the rise, it seems like almost every industry is profiting from it. You may have heard from automation in the farming industry, for example by machines that do the milking. However, two Icelandic farmer brothers named Aðalsteinn and Gardar Hallgrímsson took technology into their own hands and transformed their farm from basic to hypermodern: milking robots, automated feeding and cleaning and a massage machine are now found at the Hallgrímsson countryside. In this way, the cows can create their own schedule. They walk to the milking robot whenever they want to be milked, and while being milked they have an unlimited supply of cow candy providing the cow with extra vitamins and minerals. Furthermore, the stall door is always open, and cows have the ability to ‘relax’ on foam mattresses or get their backs scratched by the massage machine. How do you think this will work out?

Spoiler alert: very well!

Cows at the Hallgrímmson farm were producing 30% more milk after one year and wanted to be milked four times a day. In comparison, commercial farming firms make their cows milk two times a day. Moreover, the vet’s bills have decreased by 75%, because of less infections. According to the brothers, there was merely one reason for this: the cows are happier. And so are the farmers themselves, they may have to work more, but it’s easier and more fun. There is, however, a negative side on this as well, which is the one thing people have been complaining about since the industrial revolution. The number of employees at this farm dropped from six to only two, a decrease of 67%. If this is happening in all farms that improve automation, will there be enough jobs for farmers, or do they need to retrain? How do you think technology will disrupt the farming industry?

Oh, and before you go to sleep: don’t forget to count les vaches qui rient – the smiling cows.

Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/cows-are-happier-setting-their-own-schedules-too

As a kid growing up in the Netherlands, the song ‘Dansplaat’ from Brainpower was played over and over again on the radio, eventually awarded with a platina single. Little did I know the meaning of the artist’s name…

Until I came across an interesting article. A young woman named Lisa Park uses her brainwaves and related emotions to manipulate water. In her art performance Eunoia (meaning ‘beautiful thought’), she uses EEG (electroencephalography, a sensor that detects brainwaves) to make sounds by letting water vibrate. Kind of like making wine glasses sing, yet instead of using your finger tip, you use your brain. In her performance, Lisa uses 48 pools of water atop of 48 speakers, which each represent one of the 48 emotions philosopher Spinoza described in Ethica. Each speaker is connected to Lisa’s EEG headset, that transforms signals – or brainwaves – from the headset to the speakers by a defined algorithm. The algorithm reads the brainwaves in real-time from the headset and translates them into vibrations on the speakers. The speakers make the water vibrate and create illusional sounds. Every performance is unique, as each time the outcome depends on how Lisa is dealing with her feelings: calmer emotions mean less vibrations.

Interesting as this is, I find myself thinking how this can evolve over time. Reading brainwaves can be helpful in for example dealing with stress, anxiety or depression. Or what if you can control objects, moving a coffee mug by just thinking of it? For lazy persons, this may be the perfect outcome. We have seen it already in fictional stories such as Mathilda or Stranger Things, despite they did not use a device to translate their thoughts. However, it can also turn the tables completely. What happens if we have a device that reads not only brainwaves but also our mind?

Today’s world is changing at rapid speed. Digitization affects businesses across all industries and is known for ample opportunities. Thinking of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Robotics and Virtual and Augmented Reality provides extensive possibilities for firms to digitize both their organization and strategy. Yet how to implement all these new, fast changing technologies?

Customers expect the products and services of tomorrow to be implemented yesterday. Therefore, companies should be ready not only for the technology of today, but for tomorrow. The business landscape is taken over by new technologies, thereby becoming a credible digital company is important. Enhancing performance and boosting user experience play a large role in becoming so.

Where previously efficiency and effectiveness were hyped, now innovation and the ability to adopt changes are keywords in being digital. Technological opportunities are way ahead of the changeability and willingness to innovate of firms, especially for large, cumbersome companies. Going from efficiency and effectiveness to innovation and changeability takes time and should be excogitated in the right way.

On the one hand, an example of improving changeability is in the way employees are organized. Selecting smaller and more flexible teams makes it possible to create unity and adopt changes quickly. On the individual level, performance evaluation twice a year is slow and indicates a hierarchy, whereas tomorrow’s employees are more into straight levels and direct feedback. This can be done by taking snapshots, indicating the goals for next week or month and providing feedback as we speak. Improving changeability starts by the people a company cannot live without: the employees.

Innovation, on the other hand, must come from the core of the company and requires changing of strategy and organization. Stating clear what the mission of the company is and how to accomplish it contribute to the innovation of the business. Starting at the core, one can spread out across the company and then to its customers. From ‘doing digital’ to ‘being digital’ thus starts at the internal process of a company before it can be executed to the market.

Sources:

https://www2.deloitte.com/nl/nl/pages/over-deloitte/articles/digital-transformation-are-you-ready.html

https://www2.deloitte.com/nl/nl/pages/deloitte-digital/artikelen/from-doing-digital-to-being-digital.html

https://www.nrc.nl/advertentie/deloitte/hoe-bereik-je-zakelijk-succes-in-dit-digitale-decennium-zo-dus