OpenAI Hires Three AI Researchers From Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab
OpenAI has rehired prominent AI researchers Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz, who had been working at rival Thinking Machines Lab, according to an X post from OpenAI applications chief Fidji Simo.
The three researchers left OpenAI in late 2024 to help establish Thinking Machines, a high-profile startup led by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, who left around the same time. Zoph was CTO at Thinking Machines and will now report to Simo, who oversees ChatGPT. Previously, Zoph led post-training, or techniques the company uses to improve AI performance after their initial development.
When the three researchers left OpenAI more than a year ago, OpenAI was facing adversity because of a string of departures from its vaunted research organization.
Murati on Wednesday said in a post on X that Soumith Chintala, a well-known AI researcher hired in November, will be the new CTO of Thinking Machines.
Thinking Machines is looking to make a name for itself in an increasingly crowded field of so-called neolabs, startups that hope to use new approaches to developing AI models they say major firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic may have overlooked. Thinking Machines, which was last valued at $10 billion, was in talks at the end of last year to raise between $4 billion and $5 billion in new funding at a valuation of at least $50 billion.