If you’re willing to take a break from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate later next week, you might be able to allocate some time to the next Splatfest in Splatoon 2. The worldwide event will be a Super Smash Bros. special, asking players to side with heroes or villains.

The event starts on 14th December in the US and will take place in Japan on 15th December. Europe’s start date will be announced shortly. Here’s the official tweet from the Nintendo Versus Twitter account:

Will you take some time out from Smash Ultimate to participate in this upcoming Splatfest? Which side will you be choosing? Tell us in the comments.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) is using artificial intelligence to drive growth and innovation across all dimensions of its global brewing business.

The brewer of Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois and more than 500 other beer brands has built a worldwide analytics platform on the Microsoft Azure cloud, enabling the company to draw data driven-insights about everything from optimal barley growing conditions to drivers of successful sales promotions.

Tassilo Festetics, AB InBev’s vice president for global solutions, shared insights about the company’s AI strategy at a recent AI in Business event in San Francisco, which Transform edited into an abbreviated Q&A.

How is Anheuser-Busch InBev using AI today?

FESTETICS:  The question is not going to be where we deploy AI, but where is it not going to be deployed, because we see it in so many different fields.

Can you share an example or two?

FESTETICS: Smart Barley, which is one of our platforms, enables us to work with farmers to use artificial intelligence to improve their yields, reduce water usage, reduce fertilizer usage and create a much more sustainable environment. We started there five years ago.

Now we see AI in the customer-facing area with chatbots and voice. Customers are expecting to have the same frictionless interaction with every company that they’re also having in their private life. Conversational bots that allow your customers to interact with your company in that way are a basic machine learning algorithm.

We also use AI in our supply chain and back-office operations. We use Azure to simplify tasks that people are performing every day and to make people’s lives much more focused on real added-value activities rather than just on transactional activities.

How did you get started in your AI transformation?

FESTETICS: When our company was born, the cloud was not there yet. Microsoft was even not there yet. We were born in 1366. So obviously we are not a digital company. We are a company that’s being digitized.

Our company has grown over time, as a large global organization our data landscape was fragmented. For us the first step was really looking at how we basically get data together, how do we harmonize it, how do we platform it. When we looked at the entire data infrastructure we said, ‘OK let’s just not touch it. Let’s hope it doesn’t break.’

We basically rebuilt everything totally as if we were starting a new company today. With advantages in technology and the cloud you can do that. And that saves a lot of time and allows you certainly to be much more agile. But for sure it’s the biggest barrier to get that data right at the beginning.

How did you develop AI expertise within AB InBev?

FESTETICS: We were very lucky that our senior management understood very early on that this was something that we should work on. So we were early to invest in new resources to join the company, because obviously we didn’t have them around. But then we also started to develop and improve the capabilities of our own people.

Last year I took my entire team to Berkeley. We spent a week on just machine learning. And it was very fun, because normally if I take my team anywhere, they are very — well, they know a lot of things. So if you put them in a room with professors after one day they will probably be explaining to the professors how life works.

In this course about machine learning you could hear a pin drop after the lesson, because everybody was still processing. And that’s, I think, the important part — that you really continue learning and you continue to build those capabilities inside of your company.

By getting new people in and by developing new skills in your people you start to see different approaches to problem solving. These people will start to find ways to deploy new technologies, new methodologies inside of the company to provide better customer service, better waste management, improved ROI on certain activities. It really starts a different way of thinking.

What advice would you give to companies that are just getting started with AI?

FESTETICS: Really start looking at your data early, because data is the fundamental part. There is no AI without data. Then start looking at the areas where you have the best business cases, where can you drive the most value for your company.

Top photo: At the Conversations in AI event, Microsoft CVP of Azure Julia White leads a panel discussion with (left to right) Tassilo Festetics, vice president, global solutions, Anheuser-Busch InBev; Abhishek Pani, senior director of AI product and data science, Adobe; Jack Brown, SVP of product and software, Arccos Golf; and Fiona Tan, SVP of customer technology, Walmart Labs.

Related:

• Watch how Anheuser-Busch InBev taps data for even better beer.
• Read more about how customers including ABInBev are using AI.
• Learn more about Microsoft’s AI tools for businesses.

Celebrate International Ninja Day with these shadow-clad titles!

Centuries of folklore has cemented the ninjas place in history. Hidden in plain sight or aided by the shadows, common folk became masters of stealth, infiltration, and sabotage.

Celebrate the legendary warriors with these ninja-inspired games.

Valve published a blog post today outlining how a recent Steam code change meant to fix a discoverability bug inadvertently changed the way Steam algorithmically recommends games, harming some devs’ traffic.

Most notably, Valve claims that traffic from the “More Like This” recommendation engine on every Steam store page did drop noticeably for two weeks in early October, but that it “recovered around October 19th, and has stabilized since.”

This lines up with the dip that devs like Grey Alien Games’ Jake Birkett documented last month, and some people are continuing to see. Valve chalks the short-term issue up to an accidental algorithm change that caused the “More Like This” widget to recommend the most popular games on Steam that share a tag in common with a given game, rather than the most similar games.

At the same time, the company was testing a recommendation algorithm change that also caused some unforeseen traffic drops, and Valve says it will continue to do these sorts of things as it works to improve the storefront.

However, as Birkett notes, many indie games have continued to see low referral rates all the way through October and November, meaning that the algorithm change has led to likely permanent decreases in referral traffic. (Though some devs have likely seen increases, too.)

Starting at 9:00 p.m. PDT today, members of the Xbox One Preview Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omega Rings will begin receiving a new 1811 Xbox One system update (181121-1200). Read on for more about the fixes and known issues in the latest 1811 system update.

Fixes:

My Games and Apps

• Fixes to the system to ensure that Game Updates are automatically downloaded and installed when the user selects the option in settings.
• Performance fixes displaying your licensed content in My Games and Apps.
• Fixed the bug causing Game Pass and EA Access Games to go Missing when the collection cache changed.

Known Issues:

Audio

• We are tracking audio issues in which some games have audio that cuts in and out
• Audio settings reverting to a previous settings after taking an update. Workaround is to please turn on your Audio Receiver prior to turning your Xbox One and the settings will not revert.

Mouse

• We are tracking the issue with mouse lag causing game performance in some games – Workaround – Turn down the polling rate if you have a gaming mouse with software on a PC. Turn it as low as possible (125 hz).

Profile Color

• Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.

7.20d:
==

* Melee heroes below 300 base movement speed increased by 5

* Tranquil Boots: Movement speed reduced from +28% to +24%
* Power Treads: Attribute bonus increased from 12 to 14
* Phase Boots: Now has the active again instead of the passive
* Mask of Madness: Movement speed changed from +12% to +25 constant
* Yasha: Movement speed changed from +8% to +25 constant
* Manta Style: Movement speed changed from +8% to +25 constant
* Sange and Yasha: Movement speed changed from +12% to +35 constant
* Yasha and Kaya: Movement speed changed from +12% to +35 constant
* Wraith Band: Recipe cost increased from 220 to 240
* Bracer: Recipe cost increased from 220 to 240
* Null Talisman: Recipe cost increased from 220 to 240

* Axe: Counter Helix damage reduced from 75/110/145/180 to 60/100/140/180
* Axe: Level 15 Talent reduced from +4 Mana Regen to +3
* Brewmaster: Primal Split cooldown increased from 140/120/100 to 140/130/120
* Brewmaster: Level 10 talent reduced from +30 Damage to +20
* Clinkz: Burning Army damage type changed from Pierce to Hero type (50% vs heroes to 100%)
* Clinkz: Burning Army base attack time increased from 1.5/1.35/1.2 to 1.75/1.6/1.45
* Dazzle: Intelligence gain reduced from 3.4 to 3.2
* Dazzle: Bad Juju cooldown reduction reduced from 30/40/50% to 20/35/50%
* Elder Titan: Level 25 Talent changed from Astral Spirit Grants Spell Immunity to +600 Echo Stomp Wake Damage
* Ember Spirit: Base armor increased by 1
* Faceless Void: Time Lock chance reduced from 10/15/20/25% to 10/14/18/22%
* Faceless Void: Level 10 Talent reduced from +20 Damage to +15
* Grimstroke: Ink Swell max damage reduced from 160/240/320/400 to 100/200/300/400
* Grimstroke: Ink Swell max stun duration reduced from 2/2.6/3.2/3.8 to 1.7/2.4/3.1/3.8
* Grimstroke: Soul Bind cooldown increased from 80/65/50 to 90/70/50
* Io: Tether heal/mp transfer rate from 1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5 to 1.05/1.2/1.35/1.5
* Juggernaut: Omnislash now removes debuffs on cast
* Juggernaut: Level 15 Talent reduced from +25 Attack Speed to +20
* Keeper of the Light: Will-o-Wisp now has a 100/125/150 gold bounty
* Keeper of the Light: Will-o-wisp manacost increased from 200/300/400 to 250/350/450
* Lich: Base movement speed reduced from 315 to 310
* Magnus: Empower cleave damage reduced from 30/45/60/75% to 20/38/56/74%
* Magnus: Level 15 Talent reduced from +15 Strength to +12
* Magnus: Level 20 Talent reduced from +12 Armor to +10
* Monkey King: Mischief invulnerability duration reduced from 0.3 to 0.2
* Nature’s Prophet: Agility gain increased from 2.8 to 3.3
* Nature’s Prophet: Wrath of Nature’s max targets increased from 16 to 18
* Phantom Assassin: Phantom Strike attack speed duration reduced from 2.5 to 2.25
* Phantom Assassin: Blur now has a 0.4 second cast point
* Phantom Assassin: Coup de Grace damage reduced from 230/340/450% to 210/330/450%
* Puck: Dream Coil stun duration from 1.5/2.25/3 to 1.8/2.4/3
* Rubick: Telekinesis cooldown increased from 28/26/24/22 to 34/30/26/22
* Rubick: Telekinesis lift duration reduced from 1.1/1.5/1.9/2.3 to 1/1.4/1.8/2.2
* Sand King: Sand Storm cooldown from 40/32/24/16 to 40/34/28/22
* Sand King: Burrow Strike stun duration from 1.9/2/2.1/2.2 to 1.6/1.8/2/2.2
* Sand King: Level 15 Talent reduced from +50 Sand Storm DPS to +40
* Slark: Leash distance increased from 350 to 400
* Slark: Shadow Dance movement speed reduced from 30/40/50% to 20/35/50%
* Slark: Level 25 Talent reduced from +100s Essense Shift Duration to +80s
* Spirit Breaker: Greater Bash damage reduced from 12/20/28/36% to 8/16/24/32%

Another week, another snapshot! Winter is getting closer and it’s getting so cold here in Stockholm that my fingers froze and snapped off while I was writing this intro (true story). Anyway, what better way to get into a festive mood than hanging out in a fancy new village in a snowy biome? If you’re not into the whole being cold and wearing thick woollen socks in the horrible outdoors thing, you can always stay inside playing Minecraft and hang out in the new updated savanna villages. If you’re hungry, grab some berries! Enjoy!

A full summary of the content available in this snapshot can be found in the changelog on Minecraft.net, the following is a short summary:

• Updated savanna villages
• Added snowy villages
• Added Berry Bushes
• Added Berries
• Changes to raids
• New loot table function: copy_nbt

BERRIES

• Delicious!
• Not very filling!
• Plant your berries in the ground and look with your special eyes as they grow up into a strong, independent bush!

BERRY BUSHES

• Commonly found in Taiga, Taiga Hills, and Taiga Mountains
• Rarely found in Snowy Taiga and Snowy Taiga Hills and Snowy Taiga Mountains
• You can stand inside them, but be careful, it will hurt to move
• Has 4 stages of growth. Sapling, no berries, some berries, full berries
• Drops 1-2 berries in younger stage, 2-3 in full growth stage
• Supports bonemeal!

RAID CHANGES

• There’s now two waves per Bad Omen level
• Beast now has a possibility to be a part of every wave
• You now have to complete a wave before the next one starts

To get snapshots, open your launcher and go to the “launch options” tab. Check the box saying “Enable snapshots” and save. To switch between the snapshot and normal version, you can find a new dropdown menu next to the “Play” button. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (In the “launch options” page).

Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com.

Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds. 

Share your thoughts on how 1.14 is shaping up in the comments below!

Effective immediately, we’ve made some changes to the Power requirements for the Lost Forges of the Black Armory.

Over the past day, we’ve been taking in your feedback. It’s become clear that we made the initial Power requirements for the Lost Forges too high, keeping those sweet new rewards out of reach. Some players at 600 Power have been unable to dive in and beat the final boss without grinding for new Power first.

We have just delivered a server-side update to reduce the Power requirements for all the encounters in the Lost Forges by five. We fully acknowledge that this is a small move, but it is the one that we can make today. This is not the full extent of the changes to the player experience that we are investigating, but it should give Guardians at 600 Power a better chance at completing the activity.

This response doesn’t answer all of your questions. There are still many of you asking how you can catch up and acquire the Power you need to join the quests to recover these Lost Forges. The answers to those questions are coming. We have some existing plans and some new ideas in the pipeline. That conversation will continue tomorrow in “This Week At Bungie.”

Thanks for playing. Thanks for your feedback. Keep reporting on your experiences out there in the wild.