Saturday, January 17, 2026

Office Relationship of Thinking Machines Cofounder Led to His Termination

Leaders at Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab confronted cofounder and ex-CTO Barret Zoph last summer regarding an alleged inappropriate relationship with a fellow employee, which has been deemed “misconduct” in previous reports. To protect privacy, the employee’s identity is withheld; they worked in a different department and have since left the lab. After discussions with Murati, Zoph’s collaboration with the cofounders deteriorated, prompting him to explore other opportunities. He ultimately joined OpenAI, despite previous concerns about his ethics from Thinking Machines leadership. OpenAI’s CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, highlighted that Zoph’s recruitment had been planned for weeks. This week, Luke Metz and several other researchers left Thinking Machines for OpenAI, following cofounder Andrew Tulloch’s departure to Meta. Additionally, internal misalignment about the company’s direction contributed to the staff turnover. Thinking Machines Lab remains unavailable for comment.

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