The messy human drama that dealt a blow to one of AI’s hottest startups
- Jan 22
- 1 min read
Mira Murati’s meeting with her co-founders was going off the rails.
Murati, the chief executive of AI startup Thinking Machines Lab, had shown up for work on Monday last week expecting to have a one-on-one with Barret Zoph, her chief technology officer, according to people familiar with the matter.
Last summer, she had learned that Zoph was in a relationship with a colleague; in the months since, she had expressed repeated concerns about his lack of productivity, according to the people.
She was invited instead to an impromptu meeting with Zoph, another co-founder and a third employee. The three told her they disagreed with the direction of the company and that they were considering leaving.
They asked for Zoph to be given charge of all technical decision-making, according to the people. Murati responded that Zoph was already CTO and asked why he hadn’t been doing his job for months, they said.
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