Thursday, January 15, 2026

Top Researchers Transition Back to OpenAI from Mira Murati’s Thinking Labs

OpenAI announced the return of three prominent researchers, Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz, bolstering its technical leadership amid fierce competition in the AI sector. Previously with Mira Murati’s AI startup, the trio’s rejoining is particularly beneficial for CEO Sam Altman’s company, which faced significant talent loss last year. OpenAI applications CEO Fidji Simo shared that their return had been in the works for weeks, enhancing the organization’s core research and post-training capabilities essential for competing with tech giants like Google. Under the new structure, Zoph will report directly to Simo, while Metz and Schoenholz will report to Zoph. Murati also confirmed Zoph’s departure via an X post, announcing Soumith Chintala as the new CTO of her startup, Thinking Machines, which focuses on collaborative multimodal AI systems instead of complete automation. This strategic move signals OpenAI’s commitment to maintaining its leadership in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

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