Errors with Arcade 3 labs related to Vertex AI - at least 2 labs fails - with protobuf error

[mykolap]

On attempt to execute step - 
from vertexai.language_models import TextGenerationModel
from vertexai.language_models import ChatModel

error is thrown
File ~/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/google/protobuf/descriptor.py:553, in FieldDescriptor.__new__(cls, name, full_name, index, number, type, cpp_type, label, default_value, message_type, enum_type, containing_type, is_extension, extension_scope, options, serialized_options, has_default_value, containing_oneof, json_name, file, create_key)
    547 def __new__(cls, name, full_name, index, number, type, cpp_type, label,
    548             default_value, message_type, enum_type, containing_type,
    549             is_extension, extension_scope, options=None,
    550             serialized_options=None,
    551             has_default_value=True, containing_oneof=None, json_name=None,
    552             file=None, create_key=None):  # pylint: disable=redefined-builtin
--> 553   _message.Message._CheckCalledFromGeneratedFile()
    554   if is_extension:
    555     return _message.default_pool.FindExtensionByName(full_name)

TypeError: Descriptors cannot be created directly.
If this call came from a _pb2.py file, your generated code is out of date and must be regenerated with protoc >= 3.19.0.
If you cannot immediately regenerate your protos, some other possible workarounds are:
 1. Downgrade the protobuf package to 3.20.x or lower.
 2. Set PROTOCOL_BUFFERS_PYTHON_IMPLEMENTATION=python (but this will use pure-Python parsing and will be much slower).

More information: https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/news/2022-05-06#python-updates

[DaveLak]

I suppose this is why the "Generative AI with Vertex AI: Getting Started" and "Generative AI with Vertex AI: Prompt Design" labs are marked as offline in the course they are a part of and not accessible via the Arcade Level 3 page?

It is unfortunate that there is no messaging anywhere obvious stating that considering they are blockers to completing the Arcade Level 3 badge.

[mykolap · Accepted solution]

Now 3 labs with this issue are not required anymore, and I successfully received "Arcade Level 3 badge"

[DaveLak]

Same here, I received the badge and level 3 is marked complete without needing the two inactive arcade labs.

Thanks for calling this out, and thanks to the Google team for addressing this!