Since leaving OpenAI in the fall of 2024, former exec Mira Murati has wasted no time starting her next venture.
Less than a month after leaving OpenAI, Murati was already engaging in early talks to raise money for her new AI company, Reuters reported, with venture capitalists clamoring to meet with her.
She’s also been quietly hiring researchers and engineers for her stealth startup.
As of January, Murati had recruited about 10 people for her company from competitors, including Character AI, Google DeepMind, and her former employer, Wired reported. Murati told some people she plans to call the startup Thinking Machine Labs, The Information reported.
Murati spent six and a half years at OpenAI, where she served as CTO, working on the development of ChatGPT and other AI research initiatives. She was briefly appointed interim CEO in November 2023 after OpenAI’s board abruptly fired Sam Altman, a move that sparked turmoil within the company. After Altman’s reinstatement as CEO, Murati resumed her role as CTO.
Murati is one of a handful of former OpenAI executives who have gone on to launch their own companies. Former OpenAI chief scientist and cofounder Ilya Sutskever left the company in May 2024 and started Safe Superintelligence Inc. soon after leaving. Dario and Daniela Amodei, who also both worked at OpenAI, founded Anthropic in 2021.
The flurry of departures to start and join new companies, coupled with plans to convert the company to a for-profit company, adds to the uncertainty surrounding the ChatGPT maker.
Here are the OpenAI employees who are known to have left the company so far to join Murati’s startup.
John Schulman
Schulman left OpenAI in August and joined rival Anthropic, where he hoped to do more “hands-on technical work” and “focus on AI alignment,” he wrote on X. An OpenAI cofounder, Schulman led the creation of ChatGPT and co-led the company’s post-training team, which makes models for the chatbot and OpenAI’s API, according to his website.
About six months after starting at Anthropic, though, Schulman departed the company and joined Murati’s venture. At Anthropic, Schulman worked on aligning LLMs, according to his website.
Jonathan Lachman
Lachman, formerly the head of special projects at OpenAI, left the company for Murati’s startup, Wired reported in January. He worked at OpenAI for a little over a year and a half and left in November 2024, according to his LinkedIn. Lachman did not respond to a request for comment.
Barret Zoph
Zoph, who left in the fall of 2024 at the same time as Murati, is joining her team, The Information reported.
At OpenAI, Zoph ran the post-training team, which preps AI models for release. Zoph, Murati, and chief research officer Bob McGrew announced their departures from OpenAI at the same time but “made these decisions independently of each other,” Altman wrote on X in September 2024.
Luke Metz
Metz left OpenAI in October 2024 after two years, during which he worked on ChatGPT alongside Zoph, Schulman, and others, he wrote on X. He has since joined Murati’s startup, The Information reported.
Mianna Chen
Chen, who was a research program manager at OpenAI that prepared AI models for release, left the company and plans to join Murati’s, The Information reported in November 2024. Chen did not respond to a request for comment.
Christian Gibson
Gibson worked on OpenAI’s supercomputing team and left the company in February, according to his LinkedIn. Murati recruited Gibson to her venture, Fortune reported. Gibson did not respond to a request for comment.
Mario Saltarelli
Saltarelli, who worked as an IT manager at OpenAI for over five years, according to his LinkedIn, was also poached by Murati, Fortune reported. Saltarelli did not respond to a request for comment. Do you have a tip or a story? Contact Julia Hornstein via email at [email protected] or on Signal at the username Juliah.22.
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