Do you work in AI? Do you find things uniquely stressful right now, like never before? Haver you ever suffered from a mental illness? Read my personal experience of those challenges here: docs.google.com/document/d/1…

I’m really sad that my dear friend @FelixHill84 is no longer with us. He had many friends and colleagues all over the world - to try to ensure we reach them, his family have asked to share this webpage for the celebration of his life: pp.events/felix

Let us please talk more about mental health in the AI community. I was shocked and reminded of this by the sad and tragic death of this young colleague with so much talent. Many of the people in our community are likely on the spectrum; ADHD, autism, Asperger’s and so on. This rich neural diversity is likely responsible for great progress in AI, but these people, including myself, are also very vulnerable. AI used to be a small community, where universities provided shelter. But, now, the stakes are very high. There is huge competition among AI corporations in the AI race leading to routine mergers and reorgs, which cause great uncertainty and disruption. Stressed executives apply pressure and pass the stress down to the ICs. Researchers no longer enjoy the freedom to publish at most corporations, which is a huge change to what they did before. I’m not judging whether this is good or bad, just that it is a huge change. Researchers get paid a lot. They are sometimes told by managers to go on the job market to ascertain their value before applying for promotion, they are forced to sign 6-month to 1-year non-competes and notice periods to be able to accept a deserved promotion. This appears to me as a modern form of feudalism. Put simply, people are treated just as any other resource, as stuff. The financial stakes are very high for everyone. Many AI scientists are now media stars. They enjoy huge media exposure, and thousands of followers in social media, but many crave more fame. The potential for huge negative or positive impact also raises the stakes. AI ICs often see themselves as game pieces in a game among nations and corporations that is fraught with uncertainty and power trips. It is hard to tell right from wrong because laws often lag behind. Working in AI is a privilege. I repeat, it is a huge privilege. Yet, when people suffer depression, endure micro-aggressions, or get suicidal thoughts, it doesn’t feel like any of the privileges matter. If you’re feeling any of this, please find a therapist. It may take a few tries, and it may take time. It is worth it. Take it from one of your colleagues who has benefited a lot from PTSD therapy. I believe it has made me a more productive researcher, a more effective collaborator, and someone who appreciates work-life balance and differences in working styles. Please use the help that exists proudly, you’re not alone - you are special and you are loved. Rest in peace, Suchir Balaji. Thank you for everything you gave us ❤️

Today, we’re announcing Veo 2: our state-of-the-art video generation model which produces realistic, high-quality clips from text or image prompts. 🎥 We’re also releasing an improved version of our text-to-image model, Imagen 3 - available to use in ImageFX through @LabsDotGoogle. → goo.gle/veo-2-imagen-3