"I cannot believe I would say this one day, but I am burnt out. All the mental health deteriorating that I used to scoff at is real, miserable, scary, and dangerous."
"At these companies, I have helped creating extremely intelligent entities that will meaningfully improve our lives. The work makes me proud. The intensity of the work came at a personal cost."
"I hope I will heal. Until then, I will return to my home country, Vietnam, with my family. There, I plan to try something new, and also search for a cure for my conditions."
Hieu Pham, who worked at both xAI and OpenAI helping develop advanced AI systems, announced his departure citing severe burnout and mental health deterioration. Despite taking pride in creating intelligent systems that improve lives, the breakneck pace and intensity of frontier AI labs took a significant personal toll. Pham described mental health issues he previously dismissed as real, miserable, scary, and dangerous. He plans to return to Vietnam with his family to heal and explore new directions. His departure reflects a broader trend of AI researchers leaving frontier labs, including Mrinank Sharma from Anthropic, who raised concerns about the need for wisdom to match technological capacity.
Read at Business Insider
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