Mira Murati’s startup, Thinking Machines Lab, has announced the departure of co-founders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, both returning to OpenAI, along with former staffer Sam Schoenholz. Murati, the company’s CEO and former OpenAI CTO, revealed Zoph’s exit in a post on social media, highlighting Soumith Chintala as the new CTO. Despite the upbeat transition message, reports suggest Zoph’s departure wasn’t entirely amicable. With both Zoph and Metz leaving, this raises concerns about Thinking Machines’ future, especially since it recently secured $2 billion in seed funding, valuing the company at $12 billion. The high-profile team initially assembled, largely comprising former OpenAI, Meta, and Mistral AI researchers, is now losing significant talent. This trend of talent movement between AI powerhouses underscores a competitive landscape, with key players like John Schulman also transitioning to new ventures. TechCrunch is seeking comments from both Thinking Machines and OpenAI to clarify these developments.
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