The Download: the human toll of ethical AI, and lab-grown meat

Margaret Mitchell had been working at Google for two years before she realized she needed a break. Only after she spoke with a therapist did she understand the problem: she was burnt out. She ended up taking medical leave because of stress. Mitchell, who now works as an AI researcher and chief ethics scientist at the AI startup Hugging Face, is far from alone in her experience. Burnout is becoming increasingly common in responsible-AI teams, who are unlikely to receive the same levels of support as colleagues who specialize in content moderation, although the work can be just as psychologically draining.