Leaders at Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab confronted cofounder and former CTO Barret Zoph over an alleged relationship with another employee last summer, as reported by WIRED. This relationship likely relates to the “misconduct” previously mentioned in other reports, including those by WIRED. To protect privacy, the specific name of the employee is withheld. This individual, who held a leadership role in a different department than Zoph, is no longer with the lab.
Sources indicate that Murati had a conversation with Zoph about the relationship. Following that discussion, multiple sources noted that their working relationship deteriorated, leading Zoph to explore opportunities with competitors. Before departing from the company, he was in talks with leaders from Meta Superintelligence Labs. Ultimately, Zoph accepted a position at OpenAI, with CEO of applications Fidji Simo stating that the hiring process had been in progress for weeks. Simo also mentioned she did not share the concerns about Zoph’s ethics that Thinking Machines had.
Both Zoph and OpenAI declined to comment on this situation. In recent days, a third cofounder of Thinking Machines, Luke Metz, along with at least three other researchers, also transitioned to OpenAI. Additionally, Andrew Tulloch, another cofounder of the startup, left for Meta back in October.
While the tensions between Murati and Zoph culminated recently, they do not entirely account for the larger departures from Thinking Machines. WIRED has reported that there was a lack of alignment within the startup regarding its development direction. In November, Thinking Machines was reportedly seeking to raise capital at a staggering $50 billion valuation, up from its previous valuation of $12 billion. The Thinking Machines Lab declined to comment for this story.
