At Meta, we’re thrilled to announce the arrival of HawkEye, a revolutionary toolkit that addresses the complexities of debugging at scale in the machine learning (ML) research space. With ML-based products at the core of Meta’s offerings, the intricate nature of data distributions, multiple models, and ongoing A/B experiments present a substantial challenge. HawkEye is an essential solution that resolves the difficulties associated with identifying and resolving production issues to ensure the robustness of predictions and, consequently, the overall quality of user experiences and monetization strategies.
Traditionally, debugging ML models and features at Meta demanded specialized knowledge and coordination across multiple organizations. Engineers were forced to rely on shared notebooks and code for root cause analyses, which required substantial effort and time. HawkEye streamlines these processes, introducing a decision tree-based approach that enables ML experts and non-specialists to triage issues with minimal coordination and assistance.
This ground-breaking toolkit is designed to provide a systematic approach to identifying and addressing anomalies in top-line metrics. By pinpointing specific serving models, infrastructure factors, or traffic-related elements, HawkEye eliminates these anomalies, significantly reducing the time spent debugging complex production issues. Furthermore, the toolkit has the capacity to isolate prediction anomalies to features, leveraging advanced model explainability and feature importance algorithms. This enables the real-time analysis of model inputs and outputs, allowing for the computation of correlations between time-aggregated feature distributions and prediction distributions. This culminates in a ranked list of features responsible for prediction anomalies, facilitating engineers to address issues swiftly.
We are confident that HawkEye is a game-changer in Meta’s commitment to enhancing the quality of ML-based products. Its streamlined decision tree-based approach simplifies operational workflows and empowers a broader range of users to navigate and triage complex issues efficiently. We look forward to the extensibility features and community collaboration initiatives that will ensure continuous improvement and adaptability to emerging challenges. HawkEye is a powerful asset, contributing to the delivery of engaging user experiences and effective monetization strategies.
