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Wave of defections from former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s $12 billion startup Thinking Machines shows cutthroat struggle for AI talent

  • lastmansurfing
  • Jan 17
  • 1 min read



Those keeping tabs on Silicon Valley’s AI talent wars were gripped this week by news that three members of the founding team at Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup run by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, are leaving to return to OpenAI, where they all worked previously.


Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, announced the hiring coup in a post on social media platform X Wednesday, saying that Brett Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz are all returning to the AI juggernaut where they worked previously.


Simo said on social media that Zoph would report to her, with Metz and Schoenholz reporting to Zoph. Zoph and Metz were officially cofounders of Thinking Machines, while Schoenholz was a member of the “founding team” of researchers and engineers.





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