{ "id": "r61b4dd069e2", "found": true, "parent_id": "r13f2369a208", "created_at": "2026-08-31 15:15:08.013622+00:00", "rows": [ { "url": "https://brendonbeebe.substack.com/p/thinking-machines-lab-timeline-of", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab: Timeline of the $2B Seed Round, Tinker, and the January 2026 OpenAI Exodus", "published_at": "2026-01-18T13:18:56", "researcher": "Andrew Tulloch", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab: Timeline of the $2B Seed Round, Tinker, and the January 2026 OpenAI Exodus", "## First Product Launch: *Tinker* (October 2025)", "In October, *The Wall Street Journal* reported that Tulloch had left Thinking Machines Lab to join **Meta\u2019s AI research division***[[40]](https://www.reuters.com/technology/mira-muratis-thinking-machines-seeks-50-billion-valuation-funding-talks-2025-11-13/#:~:text=Thinking%20Machines%20did%20not%20immediately,a%20Reuters%20request%20for%20comment)*." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://brendonbeebe.substack.com/p/thinking-machines-lab-timeline-of", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab: Timeline of the $2B Seed Round, Tinker, and the January 2026 OpenAI Exodus", "published_at": "2026-01-18T13:18:56", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Chief Technology Officer", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab: Timeline of the $2B Seed Round, Tinker, and the January 2026 OpenAI Exodus", "## The January 2026 Exodus: Co-founders Return to OpenAI", "Mira Murati announced publicly on Jan. 14 that the company had **\u201cparted ways\u201d with Barret Zoph**, the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer*[[51]](https://www.inc.com/ava-levinson/thinking-machine-labs-staff-exodus/91289207#:~:text=CEO%20Left%20Key%20Details%20Out,of%20Departure%20Announcement)*.", "Mere hours after Murati\u2019s announcement, **OpenAI revealed it had re-hired Barret Zoph**." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab: Timeline of the $2B Seed Round, Tinker, and the January 2026 OpenAI Exodus", "## The January 2026 Exodus: Co-founders Return to OpenAI", "Mira Murati announced publicly on Jan. 14 that the company had **\u201cparted ways\u201d with Barret Zoph**, the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer*[[51]](https://www.inc.com/ava-levinson/thinking-machine-labs-staff-exodus/91289207#:~:text=CEO%20Left%20Key%20Details%20Out,of%20Departure%20Announcement)*." ] }, { "url": "https://brendonbeebe.substack.com/p/thinking-machines-lab-timeline-of", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab: Timeline of the $2B Seed Round, Tinker, and the January 2026 OpenAI Exodus", "published_at": "2026-01-18T13:18:56", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Co-founder", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab: Timeline of the $2B Seed Round, Tinker, and the January 2026 OpenAI Exodus", "## The January 2026 Exodus: Co-founders Return to OpenAI" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab: Timeline of the $2B Seed Round, Tinker, and the January 2026 OpenAI Exodus", "## The January 2026 Exodus: Co-founders Return to OpenAI" ] }, { "url": "https://brendonbeebe.substack.com/p/thinking-machines-lab-timeline-of", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab: Timeline of the $2B Seed Round, 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"joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "AI researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab: Timeline of the $2B Seed Round, Tinker, and the January 2026 OpenAI Exodus", "## The January 2026 Exodus: Co-founders Return to OpenAI", "Within the same week, at least **two more engineers** \u2013 *Lia Guy* (AI researcher) and *Ian O\u2019Connell* (infrastructure engineer) \u2013 decided to leave Thinking Machines and return to OpenAI as well*[[62]](https://www.techmeme.com/260115/p53#:~:text=Nik%20%2F%20%40ns123abc%3A%20%C2%A0%20%F0%9F%9A%A8%F0%9F%9A%A8BREAKING%3A,image)*." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab: Timeline of the $2B Seed Round, Tinker, and the January 2026 OpenAI Exodus", "## The January 2026 Exodus: Co-founders Return to OpenAI", "Within the same week, at least **two more engineers** \u2013 *Lia Guy* (AI researcher) and *Ian O\u2019Connell* (infrastructure engineer) \u2013 decided to leave Thinking Machines and return to OpenAI as well*[[62]](https://www.techmeme.com/260115/p53#:~:text=Nik%20%2F%20%40ns123abc%3A%20%C2%A0%20%F0%9F%9A%A8%F0%9F%9A%A8BREAKING%3A,image)*." ] }, { "url": "https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-co-founder-barrett-zoph-leaves-openai-to-join-google", "title": "Thinking Machines Co-founder Barrett Zoph Leaves OpenAI To Join Google", "published_at": "2026-08-27T06:18:10", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Vice President of Research, working on reinforcement learning and post-training", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Co-founder Barrett Zoph Leaves OpenAI To Join Google", "The latest to switch jerseys is Barret Zoph, who spent the better part of the last two years bouncing between OpenAI and Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab before landing, of all places, back at Google." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Co-founder Barrett Zoph Leaves OpenAI To Join Google", "Zoph announced on X that he is joining Google DeepMind as Vice President of Research, working on reinforcement learning and post-training, the same domain he built a reputation in during his OpenAI years." ] }, { "url": "https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-co-founder-barrett-zoph-leaves-openai-to-join-google", "title": "Thinking Machines Co-founder Barrett Zoph Leaves OpenAI To Join Google", "published_at": "2026-08-27T06:18:10", "researcher": "Andrew Tulloch", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Co-founder Barrett Zoph Leaves OpenAI To Join Google", "[Andrew Tulloch was the first to go](https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-cofounder-lillian-weng-quits-in-fourth-co-founder-exit/), leaving for Meta in October 2025 after reportedly turning down, and later accepting, a nine-figure pay package." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://edgen.tech/news/post/google-deepmind-hires-thinking-machines-co-founder-in-12b-talent-war", "title": "Google DeepMind hires Thinking Machines co-founder in $12B talent war", "published_at": "2026-08-27T04:50:26", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "VP of research", "researcher_evidence": [ "Google DeepMind hires Thinking Machines co-founder in $12B talent war", "Barret Zoph, co-founder of $12 billion Thinking Machines Lab, joins Google DeepMind as VP of research" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Google DeepMind hires Thinking Machines co-founder in $12B talent war", "Barret Zoph, co-founder of $12 billion Thinking Machines Lab, joins Google DeepMind as VP of research" ] }, { "url": "https://tradingview.com/news/DJN_DN20260826010333:0", "title": "News by Dow Jones Newswires on TradingView, 2026-08-27", "published_at": "2026-08-27T02:07:00", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "vice president of research", "researcher_evidence": [ "Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines Lab co-founder who abruptly defected to OpenAI this year amid a dispute with Chief Executive Mira Murati, has changed employers again.", "By Erin Woo and Meghan Bobrowsky" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Zoph, who served as chief technology officer at the startup and led a push to sell artificial-intelligence products to businesses at OpenAI, is joining Alphabet's Google as a vice president of research, the company said.", "By Erin Woo and Meghan Bobrowsky" ] }, { "url": "https://tradingview.com/news/DJN_DN20260826010333:0", "title": "News by Dow Jones Newswires on TradingView, 2026-08-27", "published_at": "2026-08-27T02:07:00", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": "Thinking Machines", "joined_lab": "OpenAI", "move_month": "2025-01", "move_date_basis": "joining", "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Zoph left Thinking Machines in January, along with fellow co-founder Luke Metz and a third employee, Sam Schoenholz. 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talent war", "[![Alex Nguyen](https://static.edwealth.ai/authors/alex-nguyen.png?w=32)\n## Alex Nguyen](https://www.edgen.tech/ja/author/news/alex-nguyen)\u00b7Aug 26 2026, 21:50" ], "move_date_basis_evidence": [ "# Google DeepMind hires Thinking Machines co-founder in $12B talent war", "Zoph said Wednesday he will join Google DeepMind as vice president of research, according to Reuters." ], "role_evidence": [ "# Google DeepMind hires Thinking Machines co-founder in $12B talent war", "Barret Zoph, co-founder of $12 billion Thinking Machines Lab, joins Google DeepMind as VP of research" ] }, { "url": "https://robotsatlas.com/posts/lilian-weng-odchodzi-z-thinking-machines-i-wraca-do-openai", "title": "Lilian Weng leaves Thinking Machines and returns to OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-07-31T08:30:00", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "VP of AI safety research", "researcher_evidence": [ "Artificial 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models, [departed for OpenAI in June](https://qz.com/google-gemini-noam-shazeer-openai-061826), and Nobel Prize-winning researcher John Jumper left Google DeepMind for Anthropic around the same time \u2014 moves that sent Alphabet stock tumbling as much as 7% in a single session." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# A former OpenAI and Thinking Machines co-founder is joining Google DeepMind as a research VP", "Noam Shazeer, who co-led Google's Gemini models, [departed for OpenAI in June](https://qz.com/google-gemini-noam-shazeer-openai-061826), and Nobel Prize-winning researcher John Jumper left Google DeepMind for Anthropic around the same time \u2014 moves that sent Alphabet stock tumbling as much as 7% in a single session." ] }, { "url": "https://mlq.ai/news/openai-says-lilian-weng-will-return-after-leaving-thinking-machines", "title": "OpenAI Says Lilian Weng Will Return After Leaving Thinking Machines", "published_at": "2026-07-30T15:00:07", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead a top-level team supporting research across the company, including work on recursive self-improvement", "researcher_evidence": [ "# OpenAI Says Lilian Weng Will Return After Leaving Thinking Machines", "OpenAI says Lilian Weng will return to the company after the AI researcher and co-founder left Thinking Machines Lab, citing the physical toll of sustained startup work." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# OpenAI Says Lilian Weng Will Return After Leaving Thinking Machines", "OpenAI confirmed that Weng will lead a top-level team supporting research across the company, including work on recursive self-improvement, but did not provide a start date." ] }, { "url": "https://spyglass.org/zucks-eleven", "title": "Zuck's Eleven", "published_at": "2025-07-01T11:00:15", "researcher": "Trapit Bansal", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "pioneered RL on chain of thought and co-creator of o-series models", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Trapit Bansal** -- pioneered RL on chain of thought and co-creator of o-series models at OpenAI.*" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Trapit Bansal** -- pioneered RL on chain of thought and co-creator of o-series models at OpenAI.*" ] }, { "url": "https://spyglass.org/zucks-eleven", "title": "Zuck's Eleven", "published_at": "2025-07-01T11:00:15", "researcher": "Shuchao Bi", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-creator of GPT-4o voice mode and o4-mini. Previously led multimodal post-training", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Shuchao Bi** -- co-creator of GPT-4o voice mode and o4-mini. Previously led multimodal post-training at OpenAI.*" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Shuchao Bi** -- co-creator of GPT-4o voice mode and o4-mini. Previously led multimodal post-training at OpenAI.*" ] }, { "url": "https://spyglass.org/zucks-eleven", "title": "Zuck's Eleven", "published_at": "2025-07-01T11:00:15", "researcher": "Huiwen Chang", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-creator of GPT-4o\u2019s image generation, and previously invented MaskGIT and Muse text-to-image architectures", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Huiwen Chang** -- co-creator of GPT-4o\u2019s image generation, and previously invented MaskGIT and Muse text-to-image architectures at Google Research*" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Huiwen Chang** -- co-creator of GPT-4o\u2019s image generation, and previously invented MaskGIT and Muse text-to-image architectures at Google Research*" ] }, { "url": "https://spyglass.org/zucks-eleven", "title": "Zuck's Eleven", "published_at": "2025-07-01T11:00:15", "researcher": "Ji Lin", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "helped build o3/o4-mini, GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.5, 4o-imagegen, and Operator reasoning stack", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Ji Lin** -- helped build o3/o4-mini, GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.5, 4o-imagegen, and Operator reasoning stack.*" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Ji Lin** -- helped build o3/o4-mini, GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.5, 4o-imagegen, and Operator reasoning stack.*" ] }, { "url": "https://spyglass.org/zucks-eleven", "title": "Zuck's Eleven", "published_at": "2025-07-01T11:00:15", "researcher": "Joel Pobar", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "inference", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Joel Pobar** \u2013 inference at Anthropic. Previously at Meta for 11 years on HHVM, Hack, Flow, Redex, performance tooling, and machine learning.*" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Joel Pobar** \u2013 inference at Anthropic. Previously at Meta for 11 years on HHVM, Hack, Flow, Redex, performance tooling, and machine learning.*" ] }, { "url": "https://spyglass.org/zucks-eleven", "title": "Zuck's Eleven", "published_at": "2025-07-01T11:00:15", "researcher": "Jack Rae", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "pre-training tech lead for Gemini and reasoning for Gemini 2.5. Led Gopher and Chinchilla early LLM efforts", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Jack Rae** -- pre-training tech lead for Gemini and reasoning for Gemini 2.5. Led Gopher and Chinchilla early LLM efforts at DeepMind.*" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Jack Rae** -- pre-training tech lead for Gemini and reasoning for Gemini 2.5. Led Gopher and Chinchilla early LLM efforts at DeepMind.*" ] }, { "url": "https://spyglass.org/zucks-eleven", "title": "Zuck's Eleven", "published_at": "2025-07-01T11:00:15", "researcher": "Hongyu Ren", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-creator of GPT-4o, 4o-mini, o1-mini, o3-mini, o3 and o4-mini. Previously leading a group for post-training", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Hongyu Ren** -- co-creator of GPT-4o, 4o-mini, o1-mini, o3-mini, o3 and o4-mini. Previously leading a group for post-training at OpenAI.*" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Hongyu Ren** -- co-creator of GPT-4o, 4o-mini, o1-mini, o3-mini, o3 and o4-mini. Previously leading a group for post-training at OpenAI.*" ] }, { "url": "https://spyglass.org/zucks-eleven", "title": "Zuck's Eleven", "published_at": "2025-07-01T11:00:15", "researcher": "Johan Schalkwyk", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "technical lead for Maya", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Johan Schalkwyk** \u2013 former Google Fellow, early contributor to Sesame, and technical lead for Maya.*" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Johan Schalkwyk** \u2013 former Google Fellow, early contributor to Sesame, and technical lead for Maya.*" ] }, { "url": "https://spyglass.org/zucks-eleven", "title": "Zuck's Eleven", "published_at": "2025-07-01T11:00:15", "researcher": "Pei Sun", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "post-training, coding, and reasoning for Gemini", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Pei Sun** \u2013 post-training, coding, and reasoning for Gemini at Google Deepmind. Previously created the last two generations of Waymo\u2019s perception models.*" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Pei Sun** \u2013 post-training, coding, and reasoning for Gemini at Google Deepmind. Previously created the last two generations of Waymo\u2019s perception models.*" ] }, { "url": "https://spyglass.org/zucks-eleven", "title": "Zuck's Eleven", "published_at": "2025-07-01T11:00:15", "researcher": "Jiahui Yu", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-creator of o3, o4-mini, GPT-4.1 and GPT-4o. Previously led the perception team at OpenAI, and co-led multimodal at Gemini", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Jiahui Yu** \u2013 co-creator of o3, o4-mini, GPT-4.1 and GPT-4o. Previously led the perception team at OpenAI, and co-led multimodal at Gemini.*\n" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Jiahui Yu** \u2013 co-creator of o3, o4-mini, GPT-4.1 and GPT-4o. Previously led the perception team at OpenAI, and co-led multimodal at Gemini.*\n" ] }, { "url": "https://spyglass.org/zucks-eleven", "title": "Zuck's Eleven", "published_at": "2025-07-01T11:00:15", "researcher": "Shengjia Zhao", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-creator of ChatGPT, GPT-4, all mini models, 4.1 and o3. Previously led synthetic data", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Shengjia Zhao** \u2013 co-creator of ChatGPT, GPT-4, all mini models, 4.1 and o3. Previously led synthetic data at OpenAI.*\nBy my count, that's:" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Zuck's Eleven", "Ruthlessly, Zuck lists out not just the names of the eleven, but where they're coming from and what they did at those old places of employment.", "- ***Shengjia Zhao** \u2013 co-creator of ChatGPT, GPT-4, all mini models, 4.1 and o3. Previously led synthetic data at OpenAI.*\nBy my count, that's:" ] }, { "url": "https://theoutpost.ai/news-story/lilian-weng-rejoins-open-ai-days-after-leaving-thinking-machines-due-to-health-concerns-29159", "title": "Lilian Weng rejoins OpenAI days after leaving Thinking Machines due to health concerns", "published_at": "2026-07-30T00:03:19", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead a top-level team focused on accelerating OpenAI's internal research", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Lilian Weng rejoins OpenAI days after leaving Thinking Machines due to health concerns" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "According to a company spokesperson, Weng will lead a top-level team focused on accelerating OpenAI's internal research.", "# Lilian Weng rejoins OpenAI days after leaving Thinking Machines due to health concerns" ] }, { "url": "https://startupfortune.com/lilian-weng-becomes-the-fourth-cofounder-to-leave-mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab", "title": "Lilian Weng becomes the fourth cofounder to leave Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab", "published_at": "2026-07-28T13:12:53", "researcher": "Andrew Tulloch", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Andrew Tulloch left for Meta in October 2025.", "The numbers here are striking.", "Murati launched Thinking Machines in February 2025 with six cofounders and a vision for enterprise AI that adapts to individual businesses rather than imposing one general-purpose model on everyone." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://startupfortune.com/lilian-weng-becomes-the-fourth-cofounder-to-leave-mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab", "title": "Lilian Weng becomes the fourth cofounder to leave Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab", "published_at": "2026-07-28T13:12:53", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Barret Zoph and Luke Metz departed in January 2026, both returning to OpenAI, with Zoph's exit reportedly turning acrimonious after he was fired for sharing confidential company information with competitors.", "The numbers here are striking.", "Murati launched Thinking Machines in February 2025 with six cofounders and a vision for enterprise AI that adapts to individual businesses rather than imposing one general-purpose model on everyone." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://startupfortune.com/lilian-weng-becomes-the-fourth-cofounder-to-leave-mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab", "title": "Lilian Weng becomes the fourth cofounder to leave Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab", "published_at": "2026-07-28T13:12:53", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Barret Zoph and Luke Metz departed in January 2026, both returning to OpenAI, with Zoph's exit reportedly turning acrimonious after he was fired for sharing confidential company information with competitors.", "The numbers here are striking.", "Murati launched Thinking Machines in February 2025 with six cofounders and a vision for enterprise AI that adapts to individual businesses rather than imposing one general-purpose model on everyone." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/thinking-machines-lab-is-ex-openai-cto-mira-muratis-new-startup", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab is ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati\u2019s new startup", "published_at": "2025-02-18T18:30:00", "researcher": "John Schulman", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "chief scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "[OpenAI co-founder John Schulman](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/06/report-openais-ex-cto-mira-murati-has-recruited-openai-co-founder-john-schulman/) is the company\u2019s chief scientist, and [Barret Zoph](https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/25/openais-chief-research-officer-has-left/), who led model post-training at OpenAI, is the CTO." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "[OpenAI co-founder John Schulman](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/06/report-openais-ex-cto-mira-murati-has-recruited-openai-co-founder-john-schulman/) is the company\u2019s chief scientist, and [Barret Zoph](https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/25/openais-chief-research-officer-has-left/), who led model post-training at OpenAI, is the CTO." ] }, { "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/thinking-machines-lab-is-ex-openai-cto-mira-muratis-new-startup", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab is ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati\u2019s new startup", "published_at": "2025-02-18T18:30:00", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "CTO", "researcher_evidence": [ "[OpenAI co-founder John Schulman](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/06/report-openais-ex-cto-mira-murati-has-recruited-openai-co-founder-john-schulman/) is the company\u2019s chief scientist, and [Barret Zoph](https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/25/openais-chief-research-officer-has-left/), who led model post-training at OpenAI, is the CTO." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "[OpenAI co-founder John Schulman](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/06/report-openais-ex-cto-mira-murati-has-recruited-openai-co-founder-john-schulman/) is the company\u2019s chief scientist, and [Barret Zoph](https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/25/openais-chief-research-officer-has-left/), who led model post-training at OpenAI, is the CTO." ] }, { "url": "https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/Thinking%20Machines%20Lab/2379081", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab", "published_at": null, "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Chief Technology Officer", "researcher_evidence": [ "In January 2026, company co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Barret Zoph and another co-founder left and returned to OpenAI , with Soumith Chintala taking over as the company's Chief Technology Officer.", "Thinking Machines Lab is an artificial intelligence startup founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati on February 19, 2025." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "In January 2026, company co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Barret Zoph and another co-founder left and returned to OpenAI , with Soumith Chintala taking over as the company's Chief Technology Officer.", "Thinking Machines Lab is an artificial intelligence startup founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati on February 19, 2025." ] }, { "url": "https://fourweekmba.com/ai-thinking-machines-lab-lilian-weng-openai-talent-gravity", "title": "FourWeekMBA", "published_at": "2026-07-29T18:29:44", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "cofounder", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab Loses Another Cofounder to OpenAI \u2014 and Capital Alone Cannot Close the Talent Gap", "July 29, 2026 \u2014 Lilian Weng Departs", "The Information 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"researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab cofounder Lilian Weng steps down, citing startup-related stress and illness", "# Thinking Machines Lab cofounder Lilian Weng steps down, citing startup-related stress and illness", "During nearly seven years at OpenAI, ending in November 2024, Weng [worked on robotics](https://www.businessinsider.com/lilian-weng-openai-ai-power-list-2024?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoocom&utm_medium=syndication&utm_source=yahoo), founded the Applied AI Research team, and later led the company's Safety Systems work before joining Thinking Machines Lab as a cofounder in 2025." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab cofounder Lilian Weng steps down, citing startup-related stress and illness", "# Thinking Machines Lab cofounder Lilian Weng steps down, citing startup-related stress and illness", "During nearly seven years at OpenAI, ending in November 2024, Weng [worked on robotics](https://www.businessinsider.com/lilian-weng-openai-ai-power-list-2024?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoocom&utm_medium=syndication&utm_source=yahoo), founded the Applied AI Research team, and later led the company's Safety Systems work before joining Thinking Machines Lab as a cofounder in 2025." ] }, { "url": "https://uat.getcoai.com/news/meta-launches-superintelligence-labs-with-14-3b-scale-ai-investment", "title": "Meta launches superintelligence labs with $14.3B Scale AI investment - CO/AI", "published_at": "2025-07-01T22:15:34", "researcher": "Jack Rae", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "- The company hired 11 elite researchers from DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic, including former DeepMind scientists Jack Rae and Pei Sun.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "- The company hired 11 elite researchers from DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic, including former DeepMind scientists Jack Rae and Pei Sun.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ] }, { "url": "https://uat.getcoai.com/news/meta-launches-superintelligence-labs-with-14-3b-scale-ai-investment", "title": "Meta launches superintelligence labs with $14.3B Scale AI investment - CO/AI", "published_at": "2025-07-01T22:15:34", "researcher": "Pei Sun", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "- The company hired 11 elite researchers from DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic, including former DeepMind scientists Jack Rae and Pei Sun.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "- The company hired 11 elite researchers from DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic, including former DeepMind scientists Jack Rae and Pei Sun.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ] }, { "url": "https://uat.getcoai.com/news/meta-launches-superintelligence-labs-with-14-3b-scale-ai-investment", "title": "Meta launches superintelligence labs with $14.3B Scale AI investment - CO/AI", "published_at": "2025-07-01T22:15:34", "researcher": "Jiahui Yu", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "- OpenAI researchers Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao, and Hongyu Ren joined Meta\u2019s team.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "- OpenAI researchers Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao, and Hongyu Ren joined Meta\u2019s team.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ] }, { "url": "https://uat.getcoai.com/news/meta-launches-superintelligence-labs-with-14-3b-scale-ai-investment", "title": "Meta launches superintelligence labs with $14.3B Scale AI investment - CO/AI", "published_at": "2025-07-01T22:15:34", "researcher": "Shuchao Bi", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "- OpenAI researchers Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao, and Hongyu Ren joined Meta\u2019s team.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "- OpenAI researchers Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao, and Hongyu Ren joined Meta\u2019s team.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ] }, { "url": "https://uat.getcoai.com/news/meta-launches-superintelligence-labs-with-14-3b-scale-ai-investment", "title": "Meta launches superintelligence labs with $14.3B Scale AI investment - CO/AI", "published_at": "2025-07-01T22:15:34", "researcher": "Shengjia Zhao", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "- OpenAI researchers Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao, and Hongyu Ren joined Meta\u2019s team.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "- OpenAI researchers Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao, and Hongyu Ren joined Meta\u2019s team.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ] }, { "url": "https://uat.getcoai.com/news/meta-launches-superintelligence-labs-with-14-3b-scale-ai-investment", "title": "Meta launches superintelligence labs with $14.3B Scale AI investment - CO/AI", "published_at": "2025-07-01T22:15:34", "researcher": "Hongyu Ren", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "- OpenAI researchers Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao, and Hongyu Ren joined Meta\u2019s team.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "- OpenAI researchers Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao, and Hongyu Ren joined Meta\u2019s team.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ] }, { "url": "https://uat.getcoai.com/news/meta-launches-superintelligence-labs-with-14-3b-scale-ai-investment", "title": "Meta launches superintelligence labs with $14.3B Scale AI investment - CO/AI", "published_at": "2025-07-01T22:15:34", "researcher": "Joel Pobar", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "- Joel Pobar from Anthropic, who previously worked at Meta for over a decade, also returned to the company.", "**Talent acquisition spree:** Meta has aggressively recruited top AI researchers from leading competitors to bolster its superintelligence capabilities." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://thenextweb.com/news/lilian-weng-thinking-machines-openai-recursive-self-improvement", "title": "She left the AI race over her health. Two days later, OpenAI had her back.", "published_at": "2026-07-29T20:01:22", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "recursive self-improvement researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "# She left the AI race over her health. Two days later, OpenAI had her back.", "Lilian Weng stepped down from Thinking Machines Lab on Tuesday, saying stress and illness had pushed her past what her health could take." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# She left the AI race over her health. Two days later, OpenAI had her back.", "By Wednesday, OpenAI confirmed she was rejoining to work on recursive self-improvement, the effort to make AI that builds better AI." ] }, { "url": "https://theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/952837/barret-zoph-openai-thinking-machines-lab?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IjdKd1ZGY2MzRTIiLCJwIjoiL2FpLWFydGlmaWNpYWwtaW50ZWxsaWdlbmNlLzk1MjgzNy9iYXJyZXQtem9waC1vcGVuYWktdGhpbmtpbmctbWFjaGluZXMtbGFiIiwiZXhwIjoxNzgyMjc2NzM3LCJpYXQiOjE3ODE4NDQ3Mzd9.AMiVMIH0zXm4EpnP_GvMmZ94o5_utN_PjQvciR74kd0", "title": "Barret Zoph is out at OpenAI again after just five months", "published_at": "2026-06-19T04:49:33", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "head of enterprise AI sales", "researcher_evidence": [ "Barret Zoph is out at OpenAI again after just five months", "He rejoined the company in January after a stint as co-founder of Mira Murati\u2019s competitor, Thinking Machines Lab.", "Zoph returned to OpenAI in mid-January after a stint as co-founder and CTO of Thinking Machines Lab, the competing AI company founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Five months after returning to OpenAI, Barret Zoph \u2014 the company\u2019s head of enterprise AI sales \u2014 has departed, *The Verge* has learned." ] }, { "url": "https://stackfutures.com/blog/lilian-weng-openai-recursive-self-improvement", "title": "Lilian Weng Returns to OpenAI as Thinking Machines Falls to 2 of 6 Founding Members | Stack Futures", "published_at": "2026-07-31T01:10:00", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "narrower research role", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Lilian Weng Returns to OpenAI as Thinking Machines Falls to 2 of 6 Founding Members", "Lilian Weng is leaving Thinking Machines Lab and returning to OpenAI, moving from co-founder responsibility into a narrower research role after months of health strain and startup workload pressure." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Lilian Weng Returns to OpenAI as Thinking Machines Falls to 2 of 6 Founding Members", "Lilian Weng is leaving Thinking Machines Lab and returning to OpenAI, moving from co-founder responsibility into a narrower research role after months of health strain and startup workload pressure." ] }, { "url": "https://theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/952837/barret-zoph-openai-thinking-machines-lab", "title": "Barret Zoph is out at OpenAI again after just five months", "published_at": "2026-06-19T04:49:33", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "head of enterprise AI sales", "researcher_evidence": [ "Barret Zoph is out at OpenAI again after just five months" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Five months after returning to OpenAI, Barret Zoph \u2014 the company\u2019s head of enterprise AI sales \u2014 has departed, *The Verge* has learned." ] }, { "url": "https://texxr.com/posts/thinking-machines-implosion-murati-openai", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab: How Mira Murati's $12B Startup Unraveled in Six Months", "published_at": "2026-01-21T00:00:00", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "CTO", "researcher_evidence": [ "Within hours, OpenAI's COO Fidji Simo [announced on X](/1161490/former-thinking-machines-team-returns-to-openai) that Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz\u2014three key Thinking Machines researchers\u2014were returning to OpenAI.", "The January Collapse" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "In February 2025, Mira Murati [unveiled Thinking Machines Lab](/882635/mira-murati-launches-thinking-machines-lab) with the kind of founding team that makes VCs salivate: herself as CEO, fresh off six years as OpenAI's CTO; Barret Zoph as CTO; John Schulman as chief scientist.", "The Dream Team" ] }, { "url": "https://texxr.com/posts/thinking-machines-implosion-murati-openai", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab: How Mira Murati's $12B Startup Unraveled in Six Months", "published_at": "2026-01-21T00:00:00", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Within hours, OpenAI's COO Fidji Simo [announced on X](/1161490/former-thinking-machines-team-returns-to-openai) that Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz\u2014three key Thinking Machines researchers\u2014were returning to OpenAI.", "The January Collapse" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Within hours, OpenAI's COO Fidji Simo [announced on X](/1161490/former-thinking-machines-team-returns-to-openai) that Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz\u2014three key Thinking Machines researchers\u2014were returning to OpenAI.", "The January Collapse" ] }, { "url": "https://texxr.com/posts/thinking-machines-implosion-murati-openai", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab: How Mira Murati's $12B Startup Unraveled in Six Months", "published_at": "2026-01-21T00:00:00", "researcher": "Sam Schoenholz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Within hours, OpenAI's COO Fidji Simo [announced on X](/1161490/former-thinking-machines-team-returns-to-openai) that Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz\u2014three key Thinking Machines researchers\u2014were returning to OpenAI.", "The January Collapse" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Within hours, OpenAI's COO Fidji Simo [announced on X](/1161490/former-thinking-machines-team-returns-to-openai) that Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz\u2014three key Thinking Machines researchers\u2014were returning to OpenAI.", "The January Collapse" ] }, { "url": "https://remio.ai/post/lilian-weng-rejoins-openai-after-leaving-thinking-machines", "title": "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI After Leaving Thinking Machines", "published_at": "2026-07-30T02:26:29", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "senior research team lead", "researcher_evidence": [ "Lilian Weng left Thinking Machines Lab after health concerns made its startup pace unsustainable, then returned to OpenAI within days.", "## Weng Left One Demanding Role and Accepted Another" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "OpenAI then placed her in charge of a senior research team.", "## Weng Left One Demanding Role and Accepted Another", "Lilian Weng left Thinking Machines Lab after health concerns made its startup pace unsustainable, then returned to OpenAI within days." ] }, { "url": "https://remio.ai/post/lilian-weng-rejoins-openai-after-leaving-thinking-machines", "title": "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI After Leaving Thinking Machines", "published_at": "2026-07-30T02:26:29", "researcher": "Andrew Tulloch", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-founder", "researcher_evidence": [ "Co-founder Andrew Tulloch left for Meta in October 2025.", "## Why the OpenAI TechCrunch Report Pressures Thinking Machines", "Thinking Machines launched in February 2025 with one of the most recognizable founding teams in artificial intelligence." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Co-founder Andrew Tulloch left for Meta in October 2025.", "## Why the OpenAI TechCrunch Report Pressures Thinking Machines", "Thinking Machines launched in February 2025 with one of the most recognizable founding teams in artificial intelligence." ] }, { "url": "https://remio.ai/post/lilian-weng-rejoins-openai-after-leaving-thinking-machines", "title": "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI After Leaving Thinking Machines", "published_at": "2026-07-30T02:26:29", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-founder", "researcher_evidence": [ "In January 2026, co-founders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz returned to OpenAI.", "## Why the OpenAI TechCrunch Report Pressures Thinking Machines", "Thinking Machines launched in February 2025 with one of the most recognizable founding teams in artificial intelligence." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "In January 2026, co-founders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz returned to OpenAI.", "## Why the OpenAI TechCrunch Report Pressures Thinking Machines", "Thinking Machines launched in February 2025 with one of the most recognizable founding teams in artificial intelligence." ] }, { "url": "https://remio.ai/post/lilian-weng-rejoins-openai-after-leaving-thinking-machines", "title": "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI After Leaving Thinking Machines", "published_at": "2026-07-30T02:26:29", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-founder", "researcher_evidence": [ "In January 2026, co-founders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz returned to OpenAI.", "## Why the OpenAI TechCrunch Report Pressures Thinking Machines", "Thinking Machines launched in February 2025 with one of the most recognizable founding teams in artificial intelligence." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "In January 2026, co-founders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz returned to OpenAI.", "## Why the OpenAI TechCrunch Report Pressures Thinking Machines", "Thinking Machines launched in February 2025 with one of the most recognizable founding teams in artificial intelligence." ] }, { "url": "https://remio.ai/post/lilian-weng-rejoins-openai-after-leaving-thinking-machines", "title": "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI After Leaving Thinking Machines", "published_at": "2026-07-30T02:26:29", "researcher": "Sam Schoenholz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Former Thinking Machines researcher Sam Schoenholz joined them, according to [earlier reporting](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/14/mira-muratis-startup-thinking-machines-lab-is-losing-two-of-its-co-founders-to-openai/).", "## Why the OpenAI TechCrunch Report Pressures Thinking Machines", "Thinking Machines launched in February 2025 with one of the most recognizable founding teams in artificial intelligence." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Former Thinking Machines researcher Sam Schoenholz joined them, according to [earlier reporting](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/14/mira-muratis-startup-thinking-machines-lab-is-losing-two-of-its-co-founders-to-openai/).", "## Why the OpenAI TechCrunch Report Pressures Thinking Machines", "Thinking Machines launched in February 2025 with one of the most recognizable founding teams in artificial intelligence." ] }, { "url": "https://remio.ai/post/lilian-weng-rejoins-openai-after-leaving-thinking-machines", "title": "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI After Leaving Thinking Machines", "published_at": "2026-07-30T02:26:29", "researcher": "John Schulman", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "chief scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "John Schulman departed for Anthropic before becoming Thinking Machines' chief scientist.", "## The Talent Flow Has Reversed Toward OpenAI", "Thinking Machines was founded as an alternative to OpenAI, but its former parent has become the destination for several departing founders." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "John Schulman departed for Anthropic before becoming Thinking Machines' chief scientist.", "## The Talent Flow Has Reversed Toward OpenAI", "Thinking Machines was founded as an alternative to OpenAI, but its former parent has become the destination for several departing founders." ] }, { "url": "https://b17news.com/lilian-weng-flips-from-thinking-machines-to-openai-after-saying-the-startups-pace-hurt-her-health", "title": "Lilian Weng flips from Thinking Machines to OpenAI after saying the startup's pace hurt her health - B17 News", "published_at": "2026-08-04T19:58:00", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead a team focused on accelerating internal research", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Lilian Weng flips from Thinking Machines to OpenAI after saying the startup\u2019s pace hurt her health", "Lilian Weng, a cofounder of the AI startup Thinking Machines Lab who stepped down this week, is rejoining OpenAI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Lilian Weng flips from Thinking Machines to OpenAI after saying the startup\u2019s pace hurt her health", "The researcher will lead a team focused on accelerating internal research at the ChatGPT maker, as part of OpenAI\u2019s bid to develop AI that can improve itself, a company spokesperson told B-17." ] }, { "url": "https://observer.com/2025/07/meta-superintellience-team-members", "title": "Every A.I. Researcher Who Has Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "published_at": "2025-07-01T21:10:40", "researcher": "Jack Rae", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Here Are the Top A.I. Researchers Who Just Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "The division will include former Google DeepMind researchers [Jack Rae](https://observer.com/person/jack-rae/) and [Pei Sun](https://observer.com/person/pei-sun/), alongside Anthropic\u2019s [Joel Pobar](https://observer.com/person/joel-pobar/) and Sesame AI\u2019s [Johan Schalkwyk](https://observer.com/person/johan-schalkwyk/)." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://observer.com/2025/07/meta-superintellience-team-members", "title": "Every A.I. Researcher Who Has Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "published_at": "2025-07-01T21:10:40", "researcher": "Pei Sun", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Here Are the Top A.I. Researchers Who Just Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "The division will include former Google DeepMind researchers [Jack Rae](https://observer.com/person/jack-rae/) and [Pei Sun](https://observer.com/person/pei-sun/), alongside Anthropic\u2019s [Joel Pobar](https://observer.com/person/joel-pobar/) and Sesame AI\u2019s [Johan Schalkwyk](https://observer.com/person/johan-schalkwyk/)." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://observer.com/2025/07/meta-superintellience-team-members", "title": "Every A.I. Researcher Who Has Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "published_at": "2025-07-01T21:10:40", "researcher": "Joel Pobar", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Here Are the Top A.I. Researchers Who Just Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "The division will include former Google DeepMind researchers [Jack Rae](https://observer.com/person/jack-rae/) and [Pei Sun](https://observer.com/person/pei-sun/), alongside Anthropic\u2019s [Joel Pobar](https://observer.com/person/joel-pobar/) and Sesame AI\u2019s [Johan Schalkwyk](https://observer.com/person/johan-schalkwyk/)." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://observer.com/2025/07/meta-superintellience-team-members", "title": "Every A.I. Researcher Who Has Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "published_at": "2025-07-01T21:10:40", "researcher": "Ji Lin", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Here Are the Top A.I. Researchers Who Just Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "In addition to nabbing researchers like [Ji Lin](https://observer.com/person/ji-lin/), [Hongyu Ren](https://observer.com/person/hongyu-ren/) and [Jiahui Yu](https://observer.com/person/jiahui-yu/), who contributed to releases like o3 and GPT-4o, MSL includes [Shengjia Zhao](https://observer.com/person/shengjia-zhao/), a co-creator of ChatGPT, and [Trapit Bansal](https://observer.com/person/trapit-bansal/), a top reinforcement learning researcher." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://observer.com/2025/07/meta-superintellience-team-members", "title": "Every A.I. Researcher Who Has Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "published_at": "2025-07-01T21:10:40", "researcher": "Hongyu Ren", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Here Are the Top A.I. Researchers Who Just Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "In addition to nabbing researchers like [Ji Lin](https://observer.com/person/ji-lin/), [Hongyu Ren](https://observer.com/person/hongyu-ren/) and [Jiahui Yu](https://observer.com/person/jiahui-yu/), who contributed to releases like o3 and GPT-4o, MSL includes [Shengjia Zhao](https://observer.com/person/shengjia-zhao/), a co-creator of ChatGPT, and [Trapit Bansal](https://observer.com/person/trapit-bansal/), a top reinforcement learning researcher." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://observer.com/2025/07/meta-superintellience-team-members", "title": "Every A.I. Researcher Who Has Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "published_at": "2025-07-01T21:10:40", "researcher": "Jiahui Yu", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Here Are the Top A.I. Researchers Who Just Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "In addition to nabbing researchers like [Ji Lin](https://observer.com/person/ji-lin/), [Hongyu Ren](https://observer.com/person/hongyu-ren/) and [Jiahui Yu](https://observer.com/person/jiahui-yu/), who contributed to releases like o3 and GPT-4o, MSL includes [Shengjia Zhao](https://observer.com/person/shengjia-zhao/), a co-creator of ChatGPT, and [Trapit Bansal](https://observer.com/person/trapit-bansal/), a top reinforcement learning researcher." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://observer.com/2025/07/meta-superintellience-team-members", "title": "Every A.I. Researcher Who Has Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "published_at": "2025-07-01T21:10:40", "researcher": "Shengjia Zhao", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Here Are the Top A.I. Researchers Who Just Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "In addition to nabbing researchers like [Ji Lin](https://observer.com/person/ji-lin/), [Hongyu Ren](https://observer.com/person/hongyu-ren/) and [Jiahui Yu](https://observer.com/person/jiahui-yu/), who contributed to releases like o3 and GPT-4o, MSL includes [Shengjia Zhao](https://observer.com/person/shengjia-zhao/), a co-creator of ChatGPT, and [Trapit Bansal](https://observer.com/person/trapit-bansal/), a top reinforcement learning researcher." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://observer.com/2025/07/meta-superintellience-team-members", "title": "Every A.I. Researcher Who Has Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "published_at": "2025-07-01T21:10:40", "researcher": "Trapit Bansal", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Here Are the Top A.I. Researchers Who Just Joined Meta\u2019s Superintelligence Team", "In addition to nabbing researchers like [Ji Lin](https://observer.com/person/ji-lin/), [Hongyu Ren](https://observer.com/person/hongyu-ren/) and [Jiahui Yu](https://observer.com/person/jiahui-yu/), who contributed to releases like o3 and GPT-4o, MSL includes [Shengjia Zhao](https://observer.com/person/shengjia-zhao/), a co-creator of ChatGPT, and [Trapit Bansal](https://observer.com/person/trapit-bansal/), a top reinforcement learning researcher." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://startupresearcher.com/news/lilian-weng-leaves-thinking-machines-lab-and-rejoins-openai", "title": "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI After Leaving Thinking Machines", "published_at": null, "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead a senior team focused on accelerating internal research", "researcher_evidence": [ "Lilian Weng, a co-founder of Thinking Machines Lab and a prominent artificial intelligence researcher, has left the startup after saying its pace and workload had become unsustainable for her health." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "On July 29, OpenAI confirmed that Weng would rejoin the company and lead a senior team focused on accelerating internal research." ] }, { "url": "https://finance.biggo.com/news/49bc58b2-87ab-421b-a148-fadfc806bedb", "title": "Lilian Weng Quits Startup, Returns to OpenAI Within 24 Hours to Lead AI Self-Evolution Research", "published_at": "2026-07-30T04:25:48", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Lead a research team focused on Recursive Self-Improvement / VP of Safety Research", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Lilian Weng Quits Startup, Returns to OpenAI Within 24 Hours to Lead AI Self-Evolution Research", "Lilian Weng, former VP of Safety Research at OpenAI, resigned as co-founder of startup Thinking Machines Lab on July 27, citing health reasons." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Lilian Weng Quits Startup, Returns to OpenAI Within 24 Hours to Lead AI Self-Evolution Research", "The very next day, OpenAI confirmed she would return to lead a research team focused on \"Recursive Self-Improvement\" \u2014 technology aimed at enabling AI systems to iteratively evolve themselves." ] }, { "url": "https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-co-founder-lillian-weng-joins-openai-a-day-after-quitting-over-health-reasons-report", "title": "Thinking Machines Co-founder Lillian Weng Joins OpenAI A Day After Quitting Over Health Reasons: Report", "published_at": "2026-07-29T19:01:07", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Co-founder Lillian Weng Joins OpenAI A Day After Quitting Over Health Reasons: Report", "Lilian Weng, who helped start [Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab](https://officechai.com/ai/former-openai-cto-mira-muratis-new-startup-valued-at-10-billion-6-months-after-launch/) last year, is heading back to her old employer to work on research aimed at getting AI systems to help build better AI systems, according to a report from The Information." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Co-founder Lillian Weng Joins OpenAI A Day After Quitting Over Health Reasons: Report", "Lilian Weng, who helped start [Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab](https://officechai.com/ai/former-openai-cto-mira-muratis-new-startup-valued-at-10-billion-6-months-after-launch/) last year, is heading back to her old employer to work on research aimed at getting AI systems to help build better AI systems, according to a report from The Information." ] }, { "url": "https://aiweekly.co/alerts/lilian-weng-rejoins-openai-for-recursive-self-improvement", "title": "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI for Recursive Self-Improvement", "published_at": "2026-07-29T19:57:28", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "senior safety-trained researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI for Recursive Self-Improvement", "Lilian Weng is returning to OpenAI to work on recursive self-improvement, using AI to speed up how OpenAI designs, trains and evaluates its own future models." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI for Recursive Self-Improvement", "If OpenAI can put a senior safety-trained researcher on automating parts of its own model development, and rivals cannot, the gap widens on something other than raw compute." ] }, { "url": "https://overpassesforamerica.com/here-is-everyone-mark-zuckerberg-has-hired-so-far-for-metas-superintelligence-team", "title": "Here Is Everyone Mark Zuckerberg Has Hired So Far for Meta\u2019s \u2018Superintelligence\u2019 Team - Overpasses For America", "published_at": "2025-06-30T18:09:25", "researcher": "Joel Pobar", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "inference", "researcher_evidence": [ "Here\u2019s the list of all the new hires as seen in Zuckerberg\u2019s memo. It notably doesn\u2019t include the employees who joined from OpenAI\u2019s Zurich office.", "- Joel Pobar: inference at Anthropic. Previously at Meta for 11 years on HHVM, Hack, Flow, Redex, performance tooling, and machine learning." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Here\u2019s the list of all the new hires as seen in Zuckerberg\u2019s memo. It notably doesn\u2019t include the employees who joined from OpenAI\u2019s Zurich office.", "- Joel Pobar: inference at Anthropic. Previously at Meta for 11 years on HHVM, Hack, Flow, Redex, performance tooling, and machine learning." ] }, { "url": "https://xunxiang.org/companies/cmh2qjqd516ocwf9rw8j508lg", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab", "published_at": null, "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab", "## Recently", "- [### Barret Zoph and Luke Metz return to OpenAI, leaving Thinking Machines Lab founding team.\nTwo co-founders who had worked at OpenAI before helping launch TML departed in January 2026, contributing to reports that roughly one-third of the founding team has since exited.\nSetbackBrendon Beebe / Substack6mo ago](https://brendonbeebe.substack.com/p/thinking-machines-lab-timeline-of)" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://xunxiang.org/companies/cmh2qjqd516ocwf9rw8j508lg", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab", "published_at": null, "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab", "## Recently", "- [### Barret Zoph and Luke Metz return to OpenAI, leaving Thinking Machines Lab founding team.\nTwo co-founders who had worked at OpenAI before helping launch TML departed in January 2026, contributing to reports that roughly one-third of the founding team has since exited.\nSetbackBrendon Beebe / Substack6mo ago](https://brendonbeebe.substack.com/p/thinking-machines-lab-timeline-of)" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://xunxiang.org/companies/cmh2qjqd516ocwf9rw8j508lg", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab", "published_at": null, "researcher": "Andrew Tulloch", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab", "## Recently", "- [### Co-founders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz return to OpenAI\nTwo co-founders left Thinking Machines Lab to return to OpenAI; Andrew Tulloch separately joined Meta Superintelligence Labs.\nSetbackTechCrunch6mo ago](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/14/mira-muratis-startup-thinking-machines-lab-is-losing-two-of-its-co-founders-to-openai/)" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://thehansindia.com/amp/technology/tech-news/thinking-machines-co-founder-resigned-due-to-stress-she-may-now-join-openai-1103040", "title": "Thinking Machines co-founder resigned due to stress; she may now join OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-07-30T08:00:27", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead a high-level team focused on recursive self-improvement", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines co-founder resigned due to stress; she may now join OpenAI", "Days after leaving Thinking Machines Lab due to health concerns and stress, AI researcher Lilian Weng is returning to OpenAI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines co-founder resigned due to stress; she may now join OpenAI", "According to a famous publication Weng will now rejoin to lead a high-level team focused on recursive self-improvement." ] }, { "url": "https://techtimes.com/articles/322117/20260729/openais-safety-architect-lilian-weng-returns-single-mission-making-ai-improve-itself.htm", "title": "OpenAI\u2019s Safety Architect Lilian Weng Returns With a Single Mission: Making AI Improve Itself", "published_at": "2026-07-29T20:20:34", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead research into recursive self-improvement", "researcher_evidence": null, "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/thinking-machine-labs-is-ex-openai-cto-mira-muratis-new-startup", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab is ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati\u2019s new startup", "published_at": "2025-02-18T18:30:00", "researcher": "John Schulman", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "chief scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has announced her new startup.", "[OpenAI co-founder John Schulman](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/06/report-openais-ex-cto-mira-murati-has-recruited-openai-co-founder-john-schulman/) is the company\u2019s chief scientist, and [Barret Zoph](https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/25/openais-chief-research-officer-has-left/), who led model post-training at OpenAI, is the CTO." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has announced her new startup.", "[OpenAI co-founder John Schulman](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/06/report-openais-ex-cto-mira-murati-has-recruited-openai-co-founder-john-schulman/) is the company\u2019s chief scientist, and [Barret Zoph](https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/25/openais-chief-research-officer-has-left/), who led model post-training at OpenAI, is the CTO." ] }, { "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/thinking-machine-labs-is-ex-openai-cto-mira-muratis-new-startup", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab is ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati\u2019s new startup", "published_at": "2025-02-18T18:30:00", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "CTO", "researcher_evidence": [ "Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has announced her new startup.", "[OpenAI co-founder John Schulman](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/06/report-openais-ex-cto-mira-murati-has-recruited-openai-co-founder-john-schulman/) is the company\u2019s chief scientist, and [Barret Zoph](https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/25/openais-chief-research-officer-has-left/), who led model post-training at OpenAI, is the CTO." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has announced her new startup.", "[OpenAI co-founder John Schulman](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/06/report-openais-ex-cto-mira-murati-has-recruited-openai-co-founder-john-schulman/) is the company\u2019s chief scientist, and [Barret Zoph](https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/25/openais-chief-research-officer-has-left/), who led model post-training at OpenAI, is the CTO." ] }, { "url": "https://thehansindia.com/technology/tech-news/thinking-machines-co-founder-resigned-due-to-stress-she-may-now-join-openai-1103040", "title": "Thinking Machines co-founder resigned due to stress; she may now join OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-07-30T08:00:27", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead a high-level team focused on recursive self-improvement", "researcher_evidence": [ "Days after leaving Thinking Machines Lab due to health concerns and stress, AI researcher Lilian Weng is returning to OpenAI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "According to a famous publication Weng will now rejoin to lead a high-level team focused on recursive self-improvement." ] }, { "url": "https://themuslimpress.com/lilian-weng-flips-from-thinking-machines-to-openai-after-saying-the-startups-pace-hurt-her-health", "title": "Lilian Weng flips from Thinking Machines to OpenAI after saying the startup's pace hurt her health", "published_at": "2026-07-29T18:57:00", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead a team focused on accelerating internal research", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Lilian Weng flips from Thinking Machines to OpenAI after saying the startup's pace hurt her health", "[Lilian Weng](https://www.businessinsider.com/thinking-machines-lab-cofounder-lilian-weng-steps-down-stress-illness-2026-7), a cofounder of the AI startup Thinking Machines Lab who stepped down this week, is rejoining OpenAI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "The researcher will lead a team focused on accelerating internal research at the ChatGPT maker, as part of OpenAI\u2019s bid to develop AI that can improve itself, a company spokesperson told Business Insider." ] }, { "url": "https://sahmcapital.com/news/content/openai-rehires-thinking-machines-co-founder-days-after-startup-exit-2026-07-30", "title": "OpenAI Rehires Thinking Machines Co-Founder Days After Startup Exit", "published_at": "2026-07-30T19:21:44", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "leading a new research team focused on accelerating the company\u2019s internal AI research", "researcher_evidence": [ "OpenAI Rehires Thinking Machines Co-Founder Days After Startup Exit", "Thinking Machines co-founder **Lilian Weng** has stepped down from the AI startup, citing health concerns and the demands of startup life, before quickly returning to OpenAI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "OpenAI Rehires Thinking Machines Co-Founder Days After Startup Exit", "Earlier this week, OpenAI confirmed Weng\u2019s rehire to TechCrunch, adding that she will be leading a new research team focused on accelerating the company\u2019s internal AI research." ] }, { "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/25/meta-names-shengjia-zhao-as-chief-scientist-of-ai-superintelligence-unit", "title": "Meta names Shengjia Zhao as chief scientist of AI superintelligence unit", "published_at": "2025-07-25T20:58:37", "researcher": "Shengjia Zhao", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Chief Scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Friday that former OpenAI researcher Shengjia Zhao will lead research efforts at the company\u2019s new AI unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL)." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "\u201cI\u2019m excited to share that Shengjia Zhao will be the Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs,\u201d Zuckerberg said in a [post on Threads](https://www.threads.com/@zuck/post/DMiwjXJSYCd?xmt=AQF0HI08Kz8AqNItYYFe01Q_5l6uKht16W7cSsKSjxjJAA) Friday." ] }, { "url": "https://americanbazaaronline.com/2026/05/14/one-third-of-thinking-machines-lab-founding-team-exits-480782", "title": "One-third of Thinking Machines Lab founding team exits amid fierce AI hiring battle", "published_at": "2026-05-14T12:13:51", "researcher": "Soumith Chintala", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "CTO", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab, an AI firm founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, had raised billions in capital while assembling one of the technology\u2019s most elite teams.", "Earlier this year, Soumith Chintala, the creator of the open-source AI project PyTorch left Meta to [join](https://americanbazaaronline.com/2026/01/16/soumith-chintala-joins-thinking-machine-labs-as-cto-473408/) Thinking Machines Lab as its CTO." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab, an AI firm founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, had raised billions in capital while assembling one of the technology\u2019s most elite teams.", "Earlier this year, Soumith Chintala, the creator of the open-source AI project PyTorch left Meta to [join](https://americanbazaaronline.com/2026/01/16/soumith-chintala-joins-thinking-machine-labs-as-cto-473408/) Thinking Machines Lab as its CTO." ] }, { "url": "https://x.com/_arohan_/status/2007909788995453103?lang=en", "title": "rohan anil (@_arohan_) on X", "published_at": "2026-01-04T20:19:33", "researcher": "Rohan Anil", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Distinguished Engineer", "researcher_evidence": [ "Hi \ud83d\udc4b I\u2019m Rohan Anil." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "I left Google DeepMind in January 2025, where I led work on the Gemini models (leaving as a Distinguished Engineer for contributions to Gemini pretraining)." ] }, { "url": "https://x.com/_arohan_/status/2007909788995453103?lang=en", "title": "rohan anil (@_arohan_) on X", "published_at": "2026-01-04T20:19:33", "researcher": "Rohan Anil", "left_lab": "Google DeepMind", "joined_lab": null, "move_month": "2025-01", "move_date_basis": "joining", "role": "Distinguished Engineer", "researcher_evidence": [ "Hi \ud83d\udc4b I\u2019m Rohan Anil." ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "I left Google DeepMind in January 2025, where I led work on the Gemini models (leaving as a Distinguished Engineer for contributions to Gemini pretraining)." ], "joined_lab_evidence": null, 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{ "url": "https://reuters.com/business/meta-hires-three-openai-researchers-wsj-reports-2025-06-26", "title": "Meta poaches three OpenAI researchers, WSJ reports", "published_at": "2025-06-26T02:41:03", "researcher": "Xiaohua Zhai", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta poaches three OpenAI researchers, WSJ reports", "Meta hired Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai, who were all working at the ChatGPT-owner's Zurich office, the WSJ reported, citing sources." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://x.com/edzitron/status/2091760535075459127", "title": "Ed Zitron (@edzitron) on X", "published_at": "2026-08-24T05:32:29", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "AI researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Source: AI researcher Luke Metz, who returned to OpenAI from TML earlier this year, joins Meta's Superintelligence Labs and will report to Alexandr Wang ([@inafried](https://x.com/inafried) / Axios) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Source: AI researcher Luke Metz, who returned to OpenAI from TML earlier this year, joins Meta's Superintelligence Labs and will report to Alexandr Wang ([@inafried](https://x.com/inafried) / Axios) (Visit Techmeme dot com for the link and full context!)" ] }, { "url": "https://qz.com/google-deepmind-ai-microsoft-talent-copilot-alphabet", "title": "A dozen Google DeepMind workers have reportedly jumped ship to Microsoft AI", "published_at": "2025-07-22T20:11:31", "researcher": "Amar Subramanya", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, 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"https://reuters.com/business/meta-names-chatgpt-co-creator-chief-scientist-superintelligence-lab-2025-07-25", "title": "Meta names ChatGPT co-creator as chief scientist of Superintelligence Lab", "published_at": "2025-07-25T21:36:43", "researcher": "Shengjia Zhao", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "chief scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Meta names ChatGPT co-creator as chief scientist of Superintelligence Lab", "NEW YORK, July 25 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms [(META.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/META.O) has appointed Shengjia Zhao, co-creator of ChatGPT, as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Lab, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday, as the company accelerates its push into advanced AI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Meta names ChatGPT co-creator as chief scientist of 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Now, she is a technical staff member at Microsoft AI." ] }, { "url": "https://techrepublic.com/article/news-microsoft-poaches-deepmind-researchers", "title": "Microsoft Poaches Google\u2019s DeepMind AI Researchers for Copilot", "published_at": "2025-07-23T12:32:31", "researcher": "Jonas Rothfuss", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "technical staff member", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Microsoft Poaches Google\u2019s DeepMind AI Researchers for Copilot", "Others who recently jumped ship from Google to Microsoft include the following:", "- **Jonas Rothfuss:** Worked at Google DeepMind for one year. 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Now, he is a technical staff member at Microsoft AI." ] }, { "url": "https://thenextweb.com/news/luke-metz-meta-superintelligence-labs-openai", "title": "Meta hired Luke Metz seven months after OpenAI hired him back", "published_at": "2026-08-25T10:32:34", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "# Meta hired Luke Metz seven months after OpenAI hired him back", "Luke Metz has joined Meta Superintelligence Labs and reports to Alexandr Wang, according to a source who confirmed the hire to Axios." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://hpcwire.com/aiwire/2026/01/27/the-thinking-machines-lab-saga-and-a-changing-ai-market", "title": "Covering Scientific & Technical AI", "published_at": "2026-01-28T00:06:46", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-founder and CTO", "researcher_evidence": [ "## Off the Wire Press Releases", "## The Thinking Machines Lab Saga and a Changing AI Market" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "## Off the Wire Press Releases", "## Rising Expectations, Stalled Momentum", "That tension surfaced openly this month, when internal drama at the company spilled into public view." ] }, { "url": "https://hpcwire.com/aiwire/2026/01/27/the-thinking-machines-lab-saga-and-a-changing-ai-market", "title": "Covering Scientific & Technical AI", "published_at": "2026-01-28T00:06:46", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "## Off the Wire Press Releases", "## The Thinking Machines Lab Saga and a Changing AI Market" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://hpcwire.com/aiwire/2026/01/27/the-thinking-machines-lab-saga-and-a-changing-ai-market", "title": "Covering Scientific & Technical AI", "published_at": "2026-01-28T00:06:46", "researcher": "Andrew Tulloch", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-founder", "researcher_evidence": [ "## Off the Wire Press Releases", "## The Thinking Machines Lab Saga and a Changing AI Market", "Zoph and Metz have since returned to OpenAI, while another co-founder, Andrew Tulloch, has moved to Meta." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "## Off the Wire Press Releases", "## The Thinking Machines Lab Saga and a Changing AI Market", "Zoph and Metz have since returned to OpenAI, while another co-founder, Andrew Tulloch, has moved to Meta." ] }, { "url": "https://businessinsider.com/anthropic-ceo-why-employees-stay-2025-8", "title": "Dario Amodei says Anthropic has 'done well' in AI talent wars", "published_at": "2025-08-08T04:01:01", "researcher": "Joel Pobar", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "inference", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta needs to work harder if it wants to make Anthropic sweat the [AI talent wars](https://www.businessinsider.com/big-tech-ai-talent-salaries-zuckerberg-altman-murati-2025-7) \u2014 at least, that's what CEO Dario Amodei is saying.", "Anthropic hasn't emerged unscathed from the AI talent wars. Meta successfully hired away at least one high-profile Anthropic employee, Joel Pobar, who worked on inference and previously spent 11 years at Meta." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Meta needs to work harder if it wants to make Anthropic sweat the [AI talent wars](https://www.businessinsider.com/big-tech-ai-talent-salaries-zuckerberg-altman-murati-2025-7) \u2014 at least, that's what CEO Dario Amodei is saying.", "Anthropic hasn't emerged unscathed from the AI talent wars. Meta successfully hired away at least one high-profile Anthropic employee, Joel Pobar, who worked on inference and previously spent 11 years at Meta." ] }, { "url": "https://businessinsider.com/anthropic-ceo-why-employees-stay-2025-8", "title": "Dario Amodei says Anthropic has 'done well' in AI talent wars", "published_at": "2025-08-08T04:01:01", "researcher": "Shengjia Zhao", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta needs to work harder if it wants to make Anthropic sweat the [AI talent wars](https://www.businessinsider.com/big-tech-ai-talent-salaries-zuckerberg-altman-murati-2025-7) \u2014 at least, that's what CEO Dario Amodei is saying.", "[Zuckerberg](https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg) also poached Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT and former lead scientist at OpenAI, and hired Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, to lead Meta's SuperIntelligence group.****" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Meta needs to work harder if it wants to make Anthropic sweat the [AI talent wars](https://www.businessinsider.com/big-tech-ai-talent-salaries-zuckerberg-altman-murati-2025-7) \u2014 at least, that's what CEO Dario Amodei is saying.", "[Zuckerberg](https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg) also poached Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT and former lead scientist at OpenAI, and hired Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, to lead Meta's SuperIntelligence group.****" ] }, { "url": "https://theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/953024/googles-nobel-prize-winning-ai-researcher-is-joining-anthropic", "title": "Google\u2019s Nobel Prize-winning AI researcher is joining Anthropic.", "published_at": "2026-06-19T20:05:26", "researcher": "John Jumper", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "AI researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Google\u2019s Nobel Prize-winning AI researcher is joining Anthropic.", "John Jumper, who has worked as a researcher at Google DeepMind since 2017, [announced his departure from the company on X](https://x.com/JohnJumperSci/status/2068001285173834106?s=20)." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Google\u2019s Nobel Prize-winning AI researcher is joining Anthropic." ] }, { "url": "https://link.theverge.com/click/40464540.7670/aHR0cHM6Ly90ZWNoY3J1bmNoLmNvbS8yMDI1LzA2LzI2L21ldGEtaGlyZXMta2V5LW9wZW5haS1yZXNlYXJjaGVyLXRvLXdvcmstb24tYWktcmVhc29uaW5nLW1vZGVscy8_dWVpZD02ZjY0ZjZhNjJmZGEyMTUxZGU2MWMzYmQ3MzM4ZGQ2Mw/675f59bbf0be35c479098bc6B74d1a582", "title": "Meta hires key OpenAI researcher to work on AI reasoning models", "published_at": "2025-06-26T16:13:59", "researcher": "Trapit Bansal", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "AI reasoning models researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta has hired a highly influential OpenAI researcher, Trapit Bansal, to work on its AI reasoning models under the [company\u2019s new AI superintelligence unit](https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/11/can-scale-ai-and-alexandr-wang-reignite-metas-ai-efforts/), a person familiar with the matter tells TechCrunch." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Meta has hired a highly influential OpenAI researcher, Trapit Bansal, to work on its AI reasoning models under the [company\u2019s new AI superintelligence unit](https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/11/can-scale-ai-and-alexandr-wang-reignite-metas-ai-efforts/), a person familiar with the matter tells TechCrunch." ] }, { "url": "https://nextomoro.com/john-schulman", "title": "John Schulman", "published_at": "2026-05-02T18:23:28", "researcher": "John Schulman", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Chief Scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "# John Schulman", "As of May 2026, Schulman leads research at Thinking Machines Lab following his February 2025 arrival from a brief tenure at [Anthropic](https://nextomoro.com/anthropic/), and is a frequent public voice on reinforcement learning from human feedback and post-training methodology." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# John Schulman", "He is the Chief Scientist of [Thinking Machines Lab](https://nextomoro.com/thinking-machines-lab/), a co-founder of [OpenAI](https://nextomoro.com/openai/), and the lead author of the [Trust Region Policy Optimization](https://arxiv.org/abs/1502.05477?ref=nextomoro.com) and [Proximal Policy Optimization](https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.06347?ref=nextomoro.com) papers that became standard policy-gradient algorithms in modern reinforcement-learning libraries." ] }, { "url": "https://reuters.com/business/meta-hires-four-more-openai-researchers-information-reports-2025-06-28", "title": "Meta hires four more OpenAI researchers, The Information reports", "published_at": "2025-06-28T17:07:03", "researcher": "Shengjia Zhao", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "# Meta hires four more OpenAI researchers, The Information reports", "The researchers, Shengjia Zhao, Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi and Hongyu Ren have each agreed to join, the report said, citing a person familiar with their hiring." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://reuters.com/business/meta-hires-four-more-openai-researchers-information-reports-2025-06-28", "title": "Meta hires four more OpenAI researchers, The 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"title": "Another High-Profile OpenAI Researcher Departs for Meta", "published_at": "2025-07-16T02:56:15", "researcher": "Hyung Won Chung", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "# Another High-Profile OpenAI Researcher Departs for Meta", "One source tells WIRED that another OpenAI researcher, Hyung Won Chung, will also be joining Meta." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://newsglobenow.com/new407202.html", "title": "Lilian Weng Returns to OpenAI After Leaving Thinking Machines", "published_at": "2026-07-30T01:32:32", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "internal research role focused on AI self-improvement work", "researcher_evidence": [ "## Executive Narrative", "Lilian Weng returned to OpenAI 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Their treatment of researchers who are not part of superintelligence has been sub-par,\" reads a now-deleted X post from Rohan Anil, who worked on Llama 4 for Meta.", "Anil left Meta and [joined](https://x.com/_arohan_/status/1930482199909794094) the AI startup Anthropic in June, shortly before Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly launched this new, more intense phase of the AI talent wars." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "\"Meta has really good researchers. Their treatment of researchers who are not part of superintelligence has been sub-par,\" reads a now-deleted X post from Rohan Anil, who worked on Llama 4 for Meta." ] }, { "url": "https://businessinsider.com/meta-ai-talent-war-superintelligence-push-tension-desertion-2025-8", "title": "Meta's superintelligence push sparks tension, threats of desertion", "published_at": "2025-08-13T09:00:02", "researcher": "Laurens van der Maaten", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "distinguished research scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "On August 6, Laurens van der Maaten, a distinguished research scientist at Meta, announced he was joining Anthropic." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "On August 6, Laurens van der Maaten, a distinguished research scientist at Meta, announced he was joining Anthropic." ] }, { "url": "https://bitcoinethereumnews.com/finance/meta-pulls-openai-veteran-into-superintelligence-labs-talent-war", "title": "Meta pulls OpenAI veteran into Superintelligence Labs talent war", "published_at": "2026-08-24T07:54:21", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "# Meta pulls OpenAI veteran into Superintelligence Labs talent war", "Meta has added another high-profile AI researcher to its Superintelligence Labs. Luke Metz, who was part of the early team behind ChatGPT at OpenAI, has joined the company. 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OpenAI co-founder; previously at [Anthropic](https://nextomoro.com/anthropic/)), [Lilian Weng](https://nextomoro.com/lilian-weng/) (former OpenAI VP), [Jared Kaplan](https://nextomoro.com/jared-kaplan/) (advisor; Chief Science Officer at Anthropic)." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab", "## At a glance", "**Other notable leadership:**[John Schulman](https://nextomoro.com/john-schulman/) (Chief Scientist; OpenAI co-founder; previously at [Anthropic](https://nextomoro.com/anthropic/)), [Lilian Weng](https://nextomoro.com/lilian-weng/) (former OpenAI VP), [Jared Kaplan](https://nextomoro.com/jared-kaplan/) (advisor; Chief Science Officer at Anthropic)." ] }, { "url": "https://nextomoro.com/thinking-machines-lab", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab", "published_at": "2026-04-27T08:43:26", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-founder and Chief Technology Officer", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab", "## At a glance", "[Barret Zoph](https://nextomoro.com/barret-zoph/), co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer, departed in January 2026 to return to OpenAI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab", "## At a glance", "[Barret Zoph](https://nextomoro.com/barret-zoph/), co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer, departed in January 2026 to return to OpenAI." ] }, { "url": "https://techchilli.com/news/meta-superintelligence-team", "title": "Meta Superintelligence Team: Name, Country, Current Role and Expertise", "published_at": "2025-08-07T20:06:23", "researcher": "Shengjia Zhao", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Chief Scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) is a new AI division of Meta Platforms, launched in June 2025, to develop next-generation \u201csuperintelligent\u201d AI models that can learn and evolve with minimal human input.", "Another key figure is Shengjia Zhao (China), Chief Scientist of the lab.", "**Shengjia Zhao (China/USA):** Co\u2011creator of ChatGPT and GPT\u20114. Leads data synthesis and AI safety research." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) is a new AI division of Meta Platforms, launched in June 2025, to develop next-generation \u201csuperintelligent\u201d AI models that can learn and evolve with minimal human input.", "Another key figure is Shengjia Zhao (China), Chief Scientist of the lab." ] }, { "url": "https://techchilli.com/news/meta-superintelligence-team", "title": "Meta Superintelligence Team: Name, Country, Current Role and Expertise", "published_at": "2025-08-07T20:06:23", "researcher": "Trapit Bansal", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "principal engineer", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) is a new AI division of Meta Platforms, launched in June 2025, to develop next-generation \u201csuperintelligent\u201d AI models that can learn and evolve with minimal human input.", "**Trapit Bansal (India/USA):** Former OpenAI principal engineer. Expert in meta\u2011learning, deep learning, and reasoning models. Education: IIT Kanpur (BSc/MSc), PhD at UMass Amherst." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) is a new AI division of Meta Platforms, launched in June 2025, to develop next-generation \u201csuperintelligent\u201d AI models that can learn and evolve with minimal human input.", "**Trapit Bansal (India/USA):** Former OpenAI principal engineer. Expert in meta\u2011learning, deep learning, and reasoning models. Education: IIT Kanpur (BSc/MSc), PhD at UMass Amherst." ] }, { "url": "https://reuters.com/technology/openai-hires-meta-ai-researcher-who-previously-led-apples-models-team-2026-02-26", "title": "OpenAI hires ex-Apple models head from Meta, The Information reports", "published_at": "2026-02-26T02:10:16", "researcher": "Ruoming Pang", "left_lab": "Meta", "joined_lab": "OpenAI", "move_month": "2026-02", "move_date_basis": "announcement", "role": "artificial intelligence infrastructure for Meta's Superintelligence Labs", "researcher_evidence": [ "# OpenAI hires ex-Apple models head from Meta, The Information reports", "Feb 25 (Reuters) - OpenAI has hired Ruoming Pang, a high-profile AI researcher at Meta [(META.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/META.O), who had joined the company from Apple [(AAPL.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/AAPL.O) about seven months ago, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing an OpenAI spokesperson." ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "# OpenAI hires ex-Apple models head from Meta, The Information reports", "Feb 25 (Reuters) - OpenAI has hired Ruoming Pang, a high-profile AI researcher at Meta [(META.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/META.O), who had joined the company from Apple [(AAPL.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/AAPL.O) about seven months ago, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing an OpenAI spokesperson." ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "# OpenAI hires ex-Apple models head from Meta, The Information reports", "Feb 25 (Reuters) - OpenAI has hired Ruoming Pang, a high-profile AI researcher at Meta [(META.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/META.O), who had joined the company from Apple [(AAPL.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/AAPL.O) about seven months ago, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing an OpenAI spokesperson." ], "move_month_evidence": [ "# OpenAI hires ex-Apple models head from Meta, The Information reports", "Feb 25 (Reuters) - OpenAI has hired Ruoming Pang, a high-profile AI researcher at Meta [(META.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/META.O), who had joined the company from Apple [(AAPL.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/AAPL.O) about seven months ago, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing an OpenAI spokesperson." ], "move_date_basis_evidence": [ "# OpenAI hires ex-Apple models head from Meta, The Information reports", "Feb 25 (Reuters) - OpenAI has hired Ruoming Pang, a high-profile AI researcher at Meta [(META.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/META.O), who had joined the company from Apple [(AAPL.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/AAPL.O) about seven months ago, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing an OpenAI spokesperson." ], "role_evidence": [ "# OpenAI hires ex-Apple models head from Meta, The Information reports", "Pang oversaw artificial intelligence infrastructure for Meta's Superintelligence Labs, which is developing the company's next generation of AI models." ] }, { "url": "https://siliconvalleyinvestclub.com/companies/thinkingmachines", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab", "published_at": null, "researcher": "Andrew Tulloch", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab", "In the newsLive", "Oct 12, 2025 \u00b7 techcrunch.com[Thinking Machines Lab Co-Founder Andrew Tulloch Heads to Meta](https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/11/thinking-machines-lab-co-founder-andrew-tulloch-heads-to-meta/)" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://tradingkey.com/news/cryptocurrencies/262127294-cryptopolitan", "title": "Meta pulls OpenAI veteran into Superintelligence Labs talent war", "published_at": "2026-08-24T07:53:27", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "AI researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Meta pulls OpenAI veteran into Superintelligence Labs talent war", "Meta has added another high-profile AI researcher to its Superintelligence Labs." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Meta pulls OpenAI veteran into Superintelligence Labs talent war", "Meta has added another high-profile AI researcher to its Superintelligence Labs." ] }, { "url": "https://aibreakingwire.com/news/lilian-weng-rejoins-openai-to-lead-recursive-self-improvement-research", "title": "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI for AI Research", "published_at": "2026-08-03T11:33:42", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead an internal division focused on advanced model development", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI to Lead Recursive Self-Improvement Research", "Former Thinking Machines co-founder Lilian Weng has rejoined OpenAI to lead a top-level research team, according to reporting by TechCrunch." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "## Directing OpenAI's Self-Improvement Research", "Rather than resuming her former post overseeing AI safety, Weng will lead an internal division focused on advanced model development, including:" ] }, { "url": "https://theoutpost.ai/news-story/microsoft-poaches-top-ai-talent-from-google-deep-mind-intensifying-tech-giants-ai-race-18075", "title": "Microsoft Poaches Top AI Talent from Google DeepMind, Intensifying Tech Giants' Hiring War", "published_at": "2025-07-23T16:53:08", "researcher": "Amar Subramanya", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "corporate vice president", "researcher_evidence": [ "Microsoft Poaches Top AI Talent from Google DeepMind, Intensifying Tech Giants' Hiring War", "On Tuesday, Amar Subramanya, who worked at Google for 16 years, most recently as a vice president of engineering developing the Gemini assistant, said on LinkedIn that he has joined Microsoft AI as a corporate vice president." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Microsoft Poaches Top AI Talent from Google DeepMind, Intensifying Tech Giants' Hiring War", "On Tuesday, Amar Subramanya, who worked at Google for 16 years, most recently as a vice president of engineering developing the Gemini assistant, said on LinkedIn that he has joined Microsoft AI as a corporate vice president." ] }, { "url": "https://theoutpost.ai/news-story/microsoft-poaches-top-ai-talent-from-google-deep-mind-intensifying-tech-giants-ai-race-18075", "title": "Microsoft Poaches Top AI Talent from Google DeepMind, Intensifying Tech Giants' Hiring War", "published_at": "2025-07-23T16:53:08", "researcher": "Adam Sadovsky", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "corporate vice president", "researcher_evidence": [ "Microsoft Poaches Top AI Talent from Google DeepMind, Intensifying Tech Giants' Hiring War", "In June, Adam Sadovsky, with nearly 18 years of experience at Google, most recently as a distinguished software engineer and senior director at DeepMind, decamped to Microsoft." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Microsoft Poaches Top AI Talent from Google DeepMind, Intensifying Tech Giants' Hiring War", "In June, Adam Sadovsky, with nearly 18 years of experience at Google, most recently as a distinguished software engineer and senior director at DeepMind, decamped to Microsoft.", "He's now a corporate vice president at Microsoft AI." ] }, { "url": "https://theoutpost.ai/news-story/microsoft-poaches-top-ai-talent-from-google-deep-mind-intensifying-tech-giants-ai-race-18075", "title": "Microsoft Poaches Top AI Talent from Google DeepMind, Intensifying Tech Giants' Hiring War", "published_at": "2025-07-23T16:53:08", "researcher": "Sonal Gupta", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "member of technical staff", "researcher_evidence": [ "Microsoft Poaches Top AI Talent from Google DeepMind, Intensifying Tech Giants' Hiring War", "Earlier this month, Sonal Gupta, a Google DeepMind engineering lead, said on her LinkedIn profile that she's now a member of technical staff on Suleyman's Microsoft AI team." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Microsoft Poaches Top AI Talent from Google DeepMind, Intensifying Tech Giants' Hiring War", "Earlier this month, Sonal Gupta, a Google DeepMind engineering lead, said on her LinkedIn profile that she's now a member of technical staff on Suleyman's Microsoft AI team." ] }, { "url": "https://theoutpost.ai/news-story/microsoft-poaches-top-ai-talent-from-google-deep-mind-intensifying-tech-giants-ai-race-18075", "title": "Microsoft Poaches Top AI Talent from Google DeepMind, Intensifying Tech Giants' Hiring War", "published_at": "2025-07-23T16:53:08", "researcher": "Jonas Rothfuss", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "technical staff role", "researcher_evidence": [ "Microsoft Poaches Top AI Talent from Google DeepMind, Intensifying Tech Giants' Hiring War", "Jonas Rothfuss took a technical staff role at Microsoft AI in May after spending a year as a research scientist at 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Anthropic software engineer Joel Pobar, as of a June 30 memo." ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "Here\u2019s Why Anthropic Refuses to Offer 9-Figure Pay Like Meta", "The tech giant did manage to [poach](https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/mark-zuckerberg-reveals-meta-superintelligence-labs/494047) Anthropic software engineer Joel Pobar, as of a June 30 memo." ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "Here\u2019s Why Anthropic Refuses to Offer 9-Figure Pay Like Meta", "The tech giant did manage to [poach](https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/mark-zuckerberg-reveals-meta-superintelligence-labs/494047) Anthropic software engineer Joel Pobar, as of a June 30 memo." ], "move_month_evidence": [ "Here\u2019s Why Anthropic Refuses to Offer 9-Figure Pay Like Meta", "The tech giant did manage to [poach](https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/mark-zuckerberg-reveals-meta-superintelligence-labs/494047) Anthropic software engineer Joel Pobar, as of a June 30 memo." ], "move_date_basis_evidence": [ "Here\u2019s Why Anthropic Refuses to Offer 9-Figure Pay Like Meta", "The tech giant did manage to [poach](https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/mark-zuckerberg-reveals-meta-superintelligence-labs/494047) Anthropic software engineer Joel Pobar, as of a June 30 memo." ], "role_evidence": [ "Here\u2019s Why Anthropic Refuses to Offer 9-Figure Pay Like Meta", "The tech giant did manage to [poach](https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/mark-zuckerberg-reveals-meta-superintelligence-labs/494047) Anthropic software engineer Joel Pobar, as of a June 30 memo." ] }, { "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/26/meta-hires-key-openai-researcher-to-work-on-ai-reasoning-models", "title": "Meta hires key OpenAI researcher to work on AI reasoning models", "published_at": "2025-06-26T16:13:59", "researcher": "Trapit Bansal", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "AI reasoning models", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta has hired a highly influential OpenAI researcher, Trapit Bansal, to work on its AI reasoning models under the [company\u2019s new AI superintelligence unit](https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/11/can-scale-ai-and-alexandr-wang-reignite-metas-ai-efforts/), a person familiar with the matter tells TechCrunch." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Meta has hired a highly influential OpenAI researcher, Trapit Bansal, to work on its AI reasoning models under the [company\u2019s new AI superintelligence unit](https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/11/can-scale-ai-and-alexandr-wang-reignite-metas-ai-efforts/), a person familiar with the matter tells TechCrunch." ] }, { "url": "https://urallnews.com/meta-hires-five-thinking-machines-lab-founders-including-a-reported-1-5-billion-engineer", "title": "Meta hires 5 Pondering Machines Lab founders together with a reported $1.5 billion engineer - URALLNEWS", "published_at": 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"published_at": "2026-04-21T09:06:03", "researcher": "Devendra Chaplot", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Devendra Chaplot left for xAI in March." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/862402/openai-safety-lead-model-policy-departs-for-anthropic-alignment-andrea-vallone", "title": "An OpenAI safety research lead departed for Anthropic", "published_at": "2026-01-15T18:00:00", "researcher": "Andrea Vallone", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "safety research lead", "researcher_evidence": [ "# An OpenAI safety research lead departed for Anthropic", "Andrea Vallone has joined Anthropic\u2019s alignment team." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# An OpenAI safety research lead departed for Anthropic", "OpenAI\u2019s head of that type of safety research, Andrea Vallone, has now joined Anthropic." ] }, { "url": "https://mitrade.com/au/insights/news/live-news/article-3-2024912-20260824", "title": "Meta pulls OpenAI veteran into Superintelligence Labs talent war", "published_at": "2026-08-24T07:53:27", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "AI researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta pulls OpenAI veteran into Superintelligence Labs talent war", "Meta has added another high-profile AI researcher to its Superintelligence Labs." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Meta pulls OpenAI veteran into Superintelligence Labs talent war", "Meta has added another high-profile 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"move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Yang Song, who previously led the strategic explorations team at OpenAI, is the new \u2018research principal\u2019 of Meta Superintelligence Labs." ] }, { "url": "https://b17news.com/metas-superintelligence-push-sparks-tension-and-threats-of-desertion-inside-its-sprawling-ai-operations", "title": "Meta's superintelligence push sparks tension and threats of desertion inside its sprawling AI operations - B17 News", "published_at": "2025-08-13T19:05:11", "researcher": "Rohan Anil", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Llama 4 researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Meta\u2019s superintelligence push sparks tension and threats of desertion inside its sprawling AI operations", "\u201cMeta has really good researchers. 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null, "role_evidence": [ "# Microsoft Acquires Talent from Google DeepMind", "Additionally, Jonas Rothfuss transitioned to Microsoft AI in May after previous experience as a research scientist at Google DeepMind." ] }, { "url": "https://onlytrustedinfo.com/dario-amodei-says-anthropic-hasnt-been-hit-as-hard-as-rivals-in-the-ai-talent-wars-and-it-boils-down-to-2-things", "title": "Dario Amodei says Anthropic hasn\u2019t been hit as hard as rivals in the AI talent wars \u2014 and it boils down to 2 things", "published_at": "2025-08-08T00:00:00", "researcher": "Shengjia Zhao", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "Zuckerberg also poached Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT and former lead scientist at OpenAI, and hired Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, to lead Meta\u2019s SuperIntelligence group.", "Read the original article on Business Insider" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, 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Co\u2011Founders Barrett Zoph and Luke Metz to OpenAI" ] }, { "url": "https://hushh.ai/one/thinking-machines/research", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab \u2014 the research, cited (a \ud83e\udd2b study)", "published_at": null, "researcher": "Mira Murati", "left_lab": "OpenAI", "joined_lab": "Thinking Machines", "move_month": "2025-02", "move_date_basis": "reporting", "role": "Founder & CEO", "researcher_evidence": [ "| Founder & CEO | Mira Murati (former OpenAI CTO)[Wikipedia \u2014 Mira Murati \u2197](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira_Murati) |" ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "| Founder & CEO | Mira Murati (former OpenAI CTO)[Wikipedia \u2014 Mira Murati \u2197](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira_Murati) |" ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "| Founder & CEO | Mira Murati (former OpenAI CTO)[Wikipedia \u2014 Mira Murati \u2197](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira_Murati) |" ], "move_month_evidence": [ "| Founded | February 2025, San Francisco[Wikipedia \u2197](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_Machines_Lab) |" ], "move_date_basis_evidence": [ "| Founded | February 2025, San Francisco[Wikipedia \u2197](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_Machines_Lab) |", "| Founder & CEO | Mira Murati (former OpenAI CTO)[Wikipedia \u2014 Mira Murati \u2197](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira_Murati) |" ], "role_evidence": [ "| Founder & CEO | Mira Murati (former OpenAI CTO)[Wikipedia \u2014 Mira Murati \u2197](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira_Murati) |" ] }, { "url": "https://hushh.ai/one/thinking-machines/research", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab \u2014 the research, cited (a \ud83e\udd2b study)", "published_at": null, "researcher": "John Schulman", "left_lab": "OpenAI", "joined_lab": "Thinking Machines", "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": "reporting", "role": "Chief Scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "| Chief Scientist | John Schulman (OpenAI co-founder)[Connectionism \u2197](https://thinkingmachines.ai/blog/) |" ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "| Chief Scientist | John Schulman (OpenAI co-founder)[Connectionism \u2197](https://thinkingmachines.ai/blog/) |" ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "| Chief Scientist | John Schulman (OpenAI co-founder)[Connectionism \u2197](https://thinkingmachines.ai/blog/) |" ], "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": [ "| Chief Scientist | John Schulman (OpenAI co-founder)[Connectionism \u2197](https://thinkingmachines.ai/blog/) |" ], "role_evidence": [ "| Chief Scientist | John Schulman (OpenAI co-founder)[Connectionism \u2197](https://thinkingmachines.ai/blog/) |" ] }, { "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dario-amodei-says-anthropic-hasnt-040101792.html", "title": "Dario Amodei says Anthropic hasn't been hit as hard as rivals in the AI talent wars \u2014 and it boils down to 2 things", "published_at": "2025-08-08T04:01:01", "researcher": "Joel Pobar", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "inference", "researcher_evidence": [ "Dario Amodei says Anthropic hasn't been hit as hard as rivals in the AI talent wars \u2014 and it boils down to 2 things", "Anthropic hasn't emerged unscathed from the AI talent wars. Meta successfully hired away at least one high-profile Anthropic employee, Joel Pobar, who worked on inference and previously spent 11 years at Meta." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Dario Amodei says Anthropic hasn't been hit as hard as rivals in the AI talent wars \u2014 and it boils down to 2 things", "Anthropic hasn't emerged unscathed from the AI talent wars. Meta successfully hired away at least one high-profile Anthropic employee, Joel Pobar, who worked on inference and previously spent 11 years at Meta." ] }, { "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dario-amodei-says-anthropic-hasnt-040101792.html", "title": "Dario Amodei says Anthropic hasn't been hit as hard as rivals in the AI talent wars \u2014 and it boils down to 2 things", "published_at": "2025-08-08T04:01:01", "researcher": "Shengjia Zhao", "left_lab": "OpenAI", "joined_lab": "Meta", "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "Dario Amodei says Anthropic hasn't been hit as hard as rivals in the AI talent wars \u2014 and it boils down to 2 things", "[Zuckerberg](https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoo.com) also poached Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT and former lead scientist at OpenAI, and hired Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, to lead Meta's SuperIntelligence group.**** Amodei recently said that some of his employees [\"wouldn't even talk to Mark Zuckerberg.\"](https://www.businessinsider.com/dario-amodei-anthropic-ai-talent-war-meta-destroy-company-culture-2025-7?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoo.com)" ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "Dario Amodei says Anthropic hasn't been hit as hard as rivals in the AI talent wars \u2014 and it boils down to 2 things", "[Zuckerberg](https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoo.com) also poached Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT and former lead scientist at OpenAI, and hired Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, to lead Meta's SuperIntelligence group.**** Amodei recently said that some of his employees [\"wouldn't even talk to Mark Zuckerberg.\"](https://www.businessinsider.com/dario-amodei-anthropic-ai-talent-war-meta-destroy-company-culture-2025-7?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoo.com)" ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "Dario Amodei says Anthropic hasn't been hit as hard as rivals in the AI talent wars \u2014 and it boils down to 2 things", "[Zuckerberg](https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoo.com) also poached Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT and former lead scientist at OpenAI, and hired Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, to lead Meta's SuperIntelligence group.**** Amodei recently said that some of his employees [\"wouldn't even talk to Mark Zuckerberg.\"](https://www.businessinsider.com/dario-amodei-anthropic-ai-talent-war-meta-destroy-company-culture-2025-7?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoo.com)" ], "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Dario Amodei says Anthropic hasn't been hit as hard as rivals in the AI talent wars \u2014 and it boils down to 2 things", "[Zuckerberg](https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoo.com) also poached Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT and former lead scientist at OpenAI, and hired Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, to lead Meta's SuperIntelligence group.**** Amodei recently said that some of his employees [\"wouldn't even talk to Mark Zuckerberg.\"](https://www.businessinsider.com/dario-amodei-anthropic-ai-talent-war-meta-destroy-company-culture-2025-7?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoo.com)" ] }, { "url": "https://misryoum.com/lilian-weng-flips-from-thinking-machines-to-openai-after-saying-the-startups-pace-hurt-her-health", "title": "Lilian Weng flips from Thinking Machines to OpenAI after saying the startup\u2019s pace hurt her health", "published_at": "2026-07-29T19:20:09", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead a team focused on accelerating internal research", "researcher_evidence": [ "Business", "Lilian Weng flips from Thinking Machines to OpenAI after saying the startup\u2019s pace hurt her health", "Lilian Weng, a cofounder of the AI startup Thinking Machines Lab who stepped down this week, is rejoining OpenAI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Business", "Lilian Weng flips from Thinking Machines to OpenAI after saying the startup\u2019s pace hurt her health", "The researcher will lead a team focused on accelerating internal research at the ChatGPT maker, as part of OpenAI\u2019s bid to develop AI that can improve itself, a company spokesperson told Business Insider." ] }, { "url": "https://jawadhassan.dev/blog/lilian-weng-openai-recursive-self-improvement", "title": "Lilian Weng's One-Day Return to OpenAI Signals the Recursive Self-Improvement Race Is On", "published_at": "2026-08-05T00:00:00", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead a newly created team focused on recursive self-improvement", "researcher_evidence": [ "On Tuesday, July 28, 2026, Lilian Weng announced she was leaving Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup she co-founded, citing health reasons." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "By Wednesday, July 29, OpenAI confirmed she was rejoining the company \u2014 this time to lead a newly created team focused on recursive self-improvement, the effort to build AI systems that help improve future AI systems." ] }, { "url": "https://on.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/703929/meta-openai-anthropic-superintelligence-lab-ai-poaching-money", "title": "Meta is trying to win the AI race with money \u2014 but not everyone can be bought", "published_at": "2025-07-10T15:32:32", "researcher": "Ruoming Pang", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "heads up Apple\u2019s foundation AI models team", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta is trying to win the AI race with money \u2014 but not everyone can be bought", "[Ruoming Pang](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-09/meta-poached-apple-s-pang-with-pay-package-over-200-million), who heads up Apple\u2019s foundation AI models team, reportedly departed for Meta, and at least two Anthropic employees and two DeepMind employees have reportedly joined the team as well." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Meta is trying to win the AI race with money \u2014 but not everyone can be bought", "[Ruoming Pang](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-09/meta-poached-apple-s-pang-with-pay-package-over-200-million), who heads up Apple\u2019s foundation AI models team, reportedly departed for Meta, and at least two Anthropic employees and two DeepMind employees have reportedly joined the team as well." ] }, { "url": "https://businessinsider.com/thinking-machines-lab-key-talent-meta-openai-xai-2026-5", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab sees key talent leave for Meta, OpenAI, xAI", "published_at": "2026-05-13T09:00:01", "researcher": "Joshua Gross", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "software engineer", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab has raised billions in capital while assembling one of AI's most elite technical teams. Now it's watching some of that talent walk out the door.", "Such was the case of veteran software engineer [Joshua Gross](https://www.businessinsider.com/thinking-machines-lab-loses-another-founding-member-to-meta-2026-4). Last year, Gross" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab has raised billions in capital while assembling one of AI's most elite technical teams. Now it's watching some of that talent walk out the door.", "Such was the case of veteran software engineer [Joshua Gross](https://www.businessinsider.com/thinking-machines-lab-loses-another-founding-member-to-meta-2026-4). Last year, Gross" ] }, { "url": "https://businessinsider.com/thinking-machines-lab-key-talent-meta-openai-xai-2026-5", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab sees key talent leave for Meta, OpenAI, xAI", "published_at": "2026-05-13T09:00:01", "researcher": "Andrew Tulloch", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "cofounder", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab has raised billions in capital while assembling one of AI's most elite technical teams. Now it's watching some of that talent walk out the door.", "Meta first began trying to lure away Thinking Machines Lab talent when it launched its superintelligence team last year. It scored a major coup by bringing on cofounder Andrew Tulloch." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab has raised billions in capital while assembling one of AI's most elite technical teams. Now it's watching some of that talent walk out the door.", "Meta first began trying to lure away Thinking Machines Lab talent when it launched its superintelligence team last year. It scored a major coup by bringing on cofounder Andrew Tulloch." ] }, { "url": "https://businessinsider.com/thinking-machines-lab-key-talent-meta-openai-xai-2026-5", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab sees key talent leave for Meta, OpenAI, xAI", "published_at": "2026-05-13T09:00:01", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "CTO", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab has raised billions in capital while assembling one of AI's most elite technical teams. Now it's watching some of that talent walk out the door.", "OpenAI brought on two more of Murati's cofounders, CTO Barret Zoph and researcher Luke Metz." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab has raised billions in capital while assembling one of AI's most elite technical teams. Now it's watching some of that talent walk out the door.", "OpenAI brought on two more of Murati's cofounders, CTO Barret Zoph and researcher Luke Metz." ] }, { "url": "https://businessinsider.com/thinking-machines-lab-key-talent-meta-openai-xai-2026-5", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab sees key talent leave for Meta, OpenAI, xAI", "published_at": "2026-05-13T09:00:01", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab has raised billions in capital while assembling one of AI's most elite technical teams. 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Now it's watching some of that talent walk out the door.", "OpenAI brought on two more of Murati's cofounders, CTO Barret Zoph and researcher Luke Metz." ] }, { "url": "https://businessinsider.com/thinking-machines-lab-key-talent-meta-openai-xai-2026-5", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab sees key talent leave for Meta, OpenAI, xAI", "published_at": "2026-05-13T09:00:01", "researcher": "Soumith Chintala", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "CTO", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab has raised billions in capital while assembling one of AI's most elite technical teams. Now it's watching some of that talent walk out the door.", "Its CTO \u2014 [Soumith Chintala](https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-soumith-chintala-mira-murati-thinking-machines-lab-pytorch-ai-2025-11), the creator of the open-source AI project PyTorch \u2014 left Meta to join Murati's startup." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab has raised billions in capital while assembling one of AI's most elite technical teams. Now it's watching some of that talent walk out the door.", "Its CTO \u2014 [Soumith Chintala](https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-soumith-chintala-mira-murati-thinking-machines-lab-pytorch-ai-2025-11), the creator of the open-source AI project PyTorch \u2014 left Meta to join Murati's startup." ] }, { "url": "https://businessinsider.com/meta-superintelligence-team-hires-deepmind-scale-ai-2025-8", "title": "Meta hires from DeepMind and Scale AI to build superintelligence team", "published_at": "2025-08-26T09:00:01", "researcher": "Yuanzhong Xu", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "veteran Google researcher who contributed to several of the search giant's most prominent AI initiatives", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta targets DeepMind", "One of Meta's most notable hires is Yuanzhong Xu, a veteran Google researcher who contributed to several of the search giant's most prominent AI initiatives." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Meta targets DeepMind", "One of Meta's most notable hires is Yuanzhong Xu, a veteran Google researcher who contributed to several of the search giant's most prominent AI initiatives." ] }, { "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/zuckerberg-announces-meta-superintelligence-effort-more-hires/printarticle/122165646.cms", "title": "Zuckerberg announces Meta \u2018superintelligence\u2019 effort, more hires", "published_at": null, "researcher": "Jack Rae", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Zuckerberg announces Meta \u2018superintelligence\u2019 effort, more hires", "The group includes former DeepMind researchers Jack Rae and Pei Sun; 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several OpenAI researchers, including Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao and Hongyu Ren; and Anthropic\u2019s Joel Pobar, who previously worked at Meta for over a decade." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/zuckerberg-announces-meta-superintelligence-effort-more-hires/printarticle/122165646.cms", "title": "Zuckerberg announces Meta \u2018superintelligence\u2019 effort, more hires", "published_at": null, "researcher": "Hongyu Ren", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Zuckerberg announces Meta \u2018superintelligence\u2019 effort, more hires", "The group includes former DeepMind researchers Jack Rae and Pei Sun; several OpenAI researchers, including Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao and Hongyu Ren; and Anthropic\u2019s Joel Pobar, who previously worked at Meta for over a decade." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/zuckerberg-announces-meta-superintelligence-effort-more-hires/printarticle/122165646.cms", "title": "Zuckerberg announces Meta \u2018superintelligence\u2019 effort, more hires", "published_at": null, "researcher": "Joel Pobar", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Zuckerberg announces Meta \u2018superintelligence\u2019 effort, more hires", "The group includes former DeepMind researchers Jack Rae and Pei Sun; several OpenAI researchers, including Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao and Hongyu Ren; and Anthropic\u2019s Joel Pobar, who previously worked at Meta for over a decade." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://m.economictimes.com/tech/technology/microsoft-culture-low-ego-and-ambitious-says-amar-subramanya-vice-president-of-ai/articleshow/122907089.cms", "title": "Microsoft culture \u2018low ego and ambitious\u2019, says Amar Subramanya, vice president of AI", "published_at": "2025-07-25T13:24:35", "researcher": "Jonas Rothfuss", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "research scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "Microsoft culture \u2018low ego and ambitious\u2019, says Amar Subramanya, vice president of AI", "- Jonas Rothfuss spent a year at Google DeepMind as a research scientist. He joined Microsoft AI\u2019s technical staff in May." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Microsoft culture \u2018low ego and ambitious\u2019, says Amar Subramanya, vice president of AI", "- Jonas Rothfuss spent a year at Google DeepMind as a research scientist. He joined Microsoft AI\u2019s technical staff in May." ] }, { "url": "https://outlookbusiness.com/artificial-intelligence/mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab-takes-talent-hit-two-cofounders-researcher-rejoin-openai", "title": "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-01-15T07:40:13", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Co-founder", "researcher_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "Two Thinking Machines co-founders, Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, rejoined OpenAI", "Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati\u2019s high-profile startup, Thinking Machines Lab, lost two of its co-founders on Wednesday after OpenAI announced the rehiring of Barret Zoph and Luke Metz." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "Two Thinking Machines co-founders, Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, rejoined OpenAI", "Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati\u2019s high-profile startup, Thinking Machines Lab, lost two of its co-founders on Wednesday after OpenAI announced the rehiring of Barret Zoph and Luke Metz." ] }, { "url": "https://outlookbusiness.com/artificial-intelligence/mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab-takes-talent-hit-two-cofounders-researcher-rejoin-openai", "title": "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-01-15T07:40:13", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Co-founder", "researcher_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "Two Thinking Machines co-founders, Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, rejoined OpenAI", "Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati\u2019s high-profile startup, Thinking Machines Lab, lost two of its co-founders on Wednesday after OpenAI announced the rehiring of Barret Zoph and Luke Metz." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "Two Thinking Machines co-founders, Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, rejoined OpenAI", "Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati\u2019s high-profile startup, Thinking Machines Lab, lost two of its co-founders on Wednesday after OpenAI announced the rehiring of Barret Zoph and Luke Metz." ] }, { "url": "https://outlookbusiness.com/artificial-intelligence/mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab-takes-talent-hit-two-cofounders-researcher-rejoin-openai", "title": "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-01-15T07:40:13", "researcher": "Sam Schoenholz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "OpenAI also confirmed the return of researcher Sam Schoenholz." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "OpenAI also confirmed the return of researcher Sam Schoenholz." ] }, { "url": "https://skywork.ai/slide/en/john-schulman-ai-research-openai-1996071356865196032", "title": "John Schulman: Pioneering AI Research at OpenAI", "published_at": null, "researcher": "John Schulman", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Alignment Science team", "researcher_evidence": [ "### Who is John Schulman? Educational background from Caltech and UC Berkeley, career progression from OpenAI co-founder to current ventures.", "Anthropic (August 2024 - February 2025) Joined Alignment Science team" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "### Who is John Schulman? Educational background from Caltech and UC Berkeley, career progression from OpenAI co-founder to current ventures.", "Anthropic (August 2024 - February 2025) Joined Alignment Science team" ] }, { "url": "https://skywork.ai/slide/en/john-schulman-ai-research-openai-1996071356865196032", "title": "John Schulman: Pioneering AI Research at OpenAI", "published_at": null, "researcher": "John Schulman", "left_lab": "Anthropic", "joined_lab": "Thinking Machines Lab", "move_month": "2025-02", "move_date_basis": "joining", "role": "Co-founder and Chief Scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "### Who is John Schulman? Educational background from Caltech and UC Berkeley, career progression from OpenAI co-founder to current ventures.", "Thinking Machines Lab (February 2025 - Present) Co-founder and Chief Scientist Working alongside former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati" ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "### Who is John Schulman? Educational background from Caltech and UC Berkeley, career progression from OpenAI co-founder to current ventures.", "Anthropic (August 2024 - February 2025) Joined Alignment Science team" ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "### Who is John Schulman? Educational background from Caltech and UC Berkeley, career progression from OpenAI co-founder to current ventures.", "Thinking Machines Lab (February 2025 - Present) Co-founder and Chief Scientist Working alongside former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati" ], "move_month_evidence": [ "### Who is John Schulman? Educational background from Caltech and UC Berkeley, career progression from OpenAI co-founder to current ventures.", "Thinking Machines Lab (February 2025 - Present) Co-founder and Chief Scientist Working alongside former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati" ], "move_date_basis_evidence": [ "### Who is John Schulman? Educational background from Caltech and UC Berkeley, career progression from OpenAI co-founder to current ventures.", "Thinking Machines Lab (February 2025 - Present) Co-founder and Chief Scientist Working alongside former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati" ], "role_evidence": [ "### Who is John Schulman? Educational background from Caltech and UC Berkeley, career progression from OpenAI co-founder to current ventures.", "Thinking Machines Lab (February 2025 - Present) Co-founder and Chief Scientist Working alongside former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati" ] }, { "url": "https://africa.businessinsider.com/news/metas-superintelligence-push-sparks-tension-and-threats-of-desertion-inside-its/gg127c0", "title": "Business Insider Africa", "published_at": "2025-08-13T09:00:02", "researcher": "Rohan Anil", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "\"Meta has really good researchers. Their treatment of researchers who are not part of superintelligence has been sub-par,\" reads a now-deleted X post from Rohan Anil, who worked on Llama 4 for Meta.", "Anil left Meta and [joined](https://x.com/_arohan_/status/1930482199909794094) the AI startup Anthropic in June, shortly before Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly launched this new, more intense phase of the AI talent wars." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://africa.businessinsider.com/news/metas-superintelligence-push-sparks-tension-and-threats-of-desertion-inside-its/gg127c0", "title": "Business Insider Africa", "published_at": "2025-08-13T09:00:02", "researcher": "Laurens van der Maaten", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "distinguished research scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "On August 6, Laurens van der Maaten, a distinguished research scientist at Meta, announced he was joining Anthropic." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "On August 6, Laurens van der Maaten, a distinguished research scientist at Meta, announced he was joining Anthropic." ] }, { "url": "https://theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/703929/meta-openai-anthropic-superintelligence-lab-ai-poaching-money", "title": "Meta is trying to win the AI race with money \u2014 but not everyone can be bought", "published_at": "2025-07-10T15:32:32", "researcher": "Ruoming Pang", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "heads up Apple\u2019s foundation AI models team", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta is trying to win the AI race with money \u2014 but not everyone can be bought", "[Ruoming Pang](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-09/meta-poached-apple-s-pang-with-pay-package-over-200-million), who heads up Apple\u2019s foundation AI models team, reportedly departed for Meta, and at least two Anthropic employees and two DeepMind employees have reportedly joined the team as well." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Meta is trying to win the AI race with money \u2014 but not everyone can be bought", "[Ruoming Pang](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-09/meta-poached-apple-s-pang-with-pay-package-over-200-million), who heads up Apple\u2019s foundation AI models team, reportedly departed for Meta, and at least two Anthropic employees and two DeepMind employees have reportedly joined the team as well." ] }, { "url": "https://thesiliconreview.com/2026/08/barret-zoph-joins-google-deepmind-vp-research-thinking-machines", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab Co-Founder Barret Zoph Joins Google DeepMind as VP of Research in Homecoming Move", "published_at": "2026-08-27T00:00:00", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Vice President of Research", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab Co-Founder Barret Zoph Joins Google DeepMind as VP of Research in Homecoming Move", "Barret Zoph, co-founder of $12 billion AI startup Thinking Machines Lab, is returning to Google DeepMind as Vice President of Research after a brief stint back at OpenAI, marking a significant hire in the intensifying AI talent war." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab Co-Founder Barret Zoph Joins Google DeepMind as VP of Research in Homecoming Move", "Barret Zoph, co-founder of $12 billion AI startup Thinking Machines Lab, is returning to Google DeepMind as Vice President of Research after a brief stint back at OpenAI, marking a significant hire in the intensifying AI talent war." ] }, { "url": "https://digitalfrontier.news/ai/thinking-machines-co-founder-lilian-weng-left-the-company-ci", "title": "Thinking Machines co-founder Lilian Weng left the company citing health reasons, then joined OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-07-29T06:12:06", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead for recursive self-improvement research", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines co-founder Lilian Weng left the company citing health reasons, then joined OpenAI", "Lilian Weng quit Thinking Machines citing health collapse from startup grind, then immediately joined OpenAI to lead recursive self-improvement research" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Lilian Weng quit Thinking Machines citing health collapse from startup grind, then immediately joined OpenAI to lead recursive self-improvement research" ] }, { "url": "https://wikiwand.com/en/Thinking_Machines_Lab", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab - Wikiwand", "published_at": null, "researcher": "John Schulman", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "chief scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab", "Its founding team members include Barret Zoph, former OpenAI VP of Research (Post-Training), Lilian Weng, former OpenAI VP, and OpenAI cofounder [John Schulman](./John_Schulman), who joined after a brief stint at the lab's competitor [Anthropic](./Anthropic).[[11]](./Thinking_Machines_Lab#cite_note-11)[[12]](./Thinking_Machines_Lab#cite_note-12)[[13]](./Thinking_Machines_Lab#cite_note-13)" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab", "Key people | - Mira Murati (CEO) - [John Schulman](./John_Schulman) (chief scientist)" ] }, { "url": "https://aichatdaily.com/ai-business/barret-zoph-exits-openai-second-time-joins-google", "title": "Barret Zoph exits OpenAI a second time, joins Google as VP of research on Gemini", "published_at": "2026-08-27T20:06:51", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "VP of research", "researcher_evidence": [ "Main content", "Barret Zoph exits OpenAI a second time, joins Google as VP of research on Gemini", "Barret Zoph has joined [Google](/gemini) as vice president of research, where he will work on reinforcement learning and post-training for Gemini." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Main content", "Barret Zoph exits OpenAI a second time, joins Google as VP of research on Gemini", "Barret Zoph has joined [Google](/gemini) as vice president of research, where he will work on reinforcement learning and post-training for Gemini." ] }, { "url": "https://x.com/JChengWSJ/status/1991069652584120441", "title": "Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) on X", "published_at": "2025-11-19T09:02:52", "researcher": "Yao Shunyu", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "\u201cLast month, a Chinese researcher, Yao Shunyu, said in a blog post that he had left the San Francisco start-up Anthropic for Google in part because company executives publicly labeled China a serious security threat.\u201d" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://africa.businessinsider.com/news/meta-scoops-up-talent-from-google-deepmind-and-scale-ai-for-its-all-star/xwgmhpz", "title": "Business Insider Africa", "published_at": "2025-08-26T09:00:01", "researcher": "Mingyang Zhang", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "has worked on helping large language models retrieve information effectively", "researcher_evidence": [ "Another former DeepMind researcher, Mingyang Zhang, whom Meta hired in July, has worked on helping large language models retrieve information effectively." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Another former DeepMind researcher, Mingyang Zhang, whom Meta hired in July, has worked on helping large language models retrieve information effectively." ] }, { "url": "https://news-factory.app/de/news/thinking-machines-cofounder-lilian-weng-leaves-startup-returns-to-openai-to-lead-ai-safety-team", "title": "Thinking Machines Co\u2011Founder Lilian Weng Leaves Startup, Returns to OpenAI to Lead AI Safety Team", "published_at": "2026-07-30T08:21:22", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "AI research leader", "researcher_evidence": [ "Lilian Weng, a co\u2011founder of the artificial\u2011intelligence startup Thinking Machines, sent an internal Slack message that she could no longer sustain the workload demanded by a fast\u2011growing company." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Just two days after Weng\u2019s announcement, OpenAI told TechCrunch that the AI research leader would be rejoining the company." ] }, { "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/barret-zoph-joining-google-deepmind-174300638.html", "title": "Barret Zoph joining Google DeepMind as research VP", "published_at": "2026-08-27T17:43:00", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "vice president of research", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Barret Zoph joining Google DeepMind as research VP" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Barret Zoph joining Google DeepMind as research VP" ] }, { "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/barret-zoph-joining-google-deepmind-174300638.html", "title": "Barret Zoph joining Google DeepMind as research VP", "published_at": "2026-08-27T17:43:00", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-founder", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Barret Zoph joining Google DeepMind as research VP", "Fellow Thinking Machines co-founder Luke Metz also left OpenAI and is joining Meta." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Barret Zoph joining Google DeepMind as research VP", "Fellow Thinking Machines co-founder Luke Metz also left OpenAI and is joining Meta." ] }, { "url": "https://thehansindia.com/technology/tech-news/metas-secret-tbd-lab-gears-up-for-llama-45-to-challenge-openais-gpt-5-995099", "title": "Meta\u2019s Secret \u201cTBD Lab\u201d Gears Up for Llama 4.5 to Challenge OpenAI\u2019s GPT-5", "published_at": "2025-08-08T11:41:16", "researcher": "Jack Rae", "left_lab": "Google's DeepMind", "joined_lab": "Meta", "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Llama revamp oversight", "researcher_evidence": [ "Overseeing the Llama revamp is Jack Rae, a high-profile hire from Google\u2019s DeepMind, who is working with both newly recruited AI experts and the original Llama engineering team.", "As OpenAI\u2019s GPT-5 captures global attention, Meta is quietly setting the stage for a fierce challenge in the artificial intelligence race." ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "Overseeing the Llama revamp is Jack Rae, a high-profile hire from Google\u2019s DeepMind, who is working with both newly recruited AI experts and the original Llama engineering team.", "As OpenAI\u2019s GPT-5 captures global attention, Meta is quietly setting the stage for a fierce challenge in the artificial intelligence race." ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "Overseeing the Llama revamp is Jack Rae, a high-profile hire from Google\u2019s DeepMind, who is working with both newly recruited AI experts and the original Llama engineering team.", "As OpenAI\u2019s GPT-5 captures global attention, Meta is quietly setting the stage for a fierce challenge in the artificial intelligence race." ], "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Overseeing the Llama revamp is Jack Rae, a high-profile hire from Google\u2019s DeepMind, who is working with both newly recruited AI experts and the original Llama engineering team.", "As OpenAI\u2019s GPT-5 captures global attention, Meta is quietly setting the stage for a fierce challenge in the artificial intelligence race." ] }, { "url": "https://newsbytesapp.com/news/business/microsoft-hires-ai-researchers-from-google-deepmind-to-build-copilot/story", "title": "Microsoft hires over 20 AI researchers from Google DeepMind", "published_at": "2025-07-23T03:04:10", "researcher": "Jonas Rothfuss", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "research scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "Microsoft hires over 20 AI researchers from Google DeepMind", "Talent acquisition", "Jonas Rothfuss also took a technical staff role at Microsoft AI in May after spending a year as a research scientist at Google DeepMind." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Microsoft hires over 20 AI researchers from Google DeepMind", "Talent acquisition", "Jonas Rothfuss also took a technical staff role at Microsoft AI in May after spending a year as a research scientist at Google DeepMind." ] }, { "url": "https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-cofounder-lillian-weng-quits-in-fourth-co-founder-exit", "title": "Thinking Machines' Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit", "published_at": "2026-07-27T21:53:41", "researcher": "Andrew Tulloch", "left_lab": "Thinking Machines Lab", "joined_lab": "Meta", "move_month": "2025-10", "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Andrew Tulloch was the first to go, departing for Meta in October 2025 after reportedly turning down one of the company\u2019s nine-figure \u201cgodfather\u201d packages before eventually accepting a similar offer.", "# Thinking Machines\u2019 Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit" ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "Andrew Tulloch was the first to go, departing for Meta in October 2025 after reportedly turning down one of the company\u2019s nine-figure \u201cgodfather\u201d packages before eventually accepting a similar offer.", "# Thinking Machines\u2019 Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit" ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "Andrew Tulloch was the first to go, departing for Meta in October 2025 after reportedly turning down one of the company\u2019s nine-figure \u201cgodfather\u201d packages before eventually accepting a similar offer.", "# Thinking Machines\u2019 Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit" ], "move_month_evidence": [ "Andrew Tulloch was the first to go, departing for Meta in October 2025 after reportedly turning down one of the company\u2019s nine-figure \u201cgodfather\u201d packages before eventually accepting a similar offer.", "# Thinking Machines\u2019 Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit" ], "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-cofounder-lillian-weng-quits-in-fourth-co-founder-exit", "title": "Thinking Machines' Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit", "published_at": "2026-07-27T21:53:41", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": "Thinking Machines Lab", "joined_lab": "OpenAI", "move_month": "2026-01", "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "[Barret Zoph](https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-cto-barret-zoph-two-other-senior-researchers-rejoin-openai/) and Luke Metz followed in January 2026, both returning to OpenAI along with a third former OpenAI staffer, Sam Schoenholz, in a coordinated set of announcements that Murati and OpenAI\u2019s Fidji Simo made barely an hour apart.", "# Thinking Machines\u2019 Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit" ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "[Barret Zoph](https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-cto-barret-zoph-two-other-senior-researchers-rejoin-openai/) and Luke Metz followed in January 2026, both returning to OpenAI along with a third former OpenAI staffer, Sam Schoenholz, in a coordinated set of announcements that Murati and OpenAI\u2019s Fidji Simo made barely an hour apart.", "# Thinking Machines\u2019 Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit" ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "[Barret Zoph](https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-cto-barret-zoph-two-other-senior-researchers-rejoin-openai/) and Luke Metz followed in January 2026, both returning to OpenAI along with a third former OpenAI staffer, Sam Schoenholz, in a coordinated set of announcements that Murati and OpenAI\u2019s Fidji Simo made barely an hour apart.", "# Thinking Machines\u2019 Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit" ], "move_month_evidence": [ "[Barret Zoph](https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-cto-barret-zoph-two-other-senior-researchers-rejoin-openai/) and Luke Metz followed in January 2026, both returning to OpenAI along with a third former OpenAI staffer, Sam Schoenholz, in a coordinated set of announcements that Murati and OpenAI\u2019s Fidji Simo made barely an hour apart.", "# Thinking Machines\u2019 Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit" ], "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-cofounder-lillian-weng-quits-in-fourth-co-founder-exit", "title": "Thinking Machines' Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit", "published_at": "2026-07-27T21:53:41", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": "Thinking Machines Lab", "joined_lab": "OpenAI", "move_month": "2026-01", "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "[Barret Zoph](https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-cto-barret-zoph-two-other-senior-researchers-rejoin-openai/) and Luke Metz followed in January 2026, both returning to OpenAI along with a third former OpenAI staffer, Sam Schoenholz, in a coordinated set of announcements that Murati and OpenAI\u2019s Fidji Simo made barely an hour apart.", "# Thinking Machines\u2019 Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit" ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "[Barret Zoph](https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-cto-barret-zoph-two-other-senior-researchers-rejoin-openai/) and Luke Metz followed in January 2026, both returning to OpenAI along with a third former OpenAI staffer, Sam Schoenholz, in a coordinated set of announcements that Murati and OpenAI\u2019s Fidji Simo made barely an hour apart.", "# Thinking Machines\u2019 Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit" ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "[Barret Zoph](https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-cto-barret-zoph-two-other-senior-researchers-rejoin-openai/) and Luke Metz followed in January 2026, both returning to OpenAI along with a third former OpenAI staffer, Sam Schoenholz, in a coordinated set of announcements that Murati and OpenAI\u2019s Fidji Simo made barely an hour apart.", "# Thinking Machines\u2019 Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit" ], "move_month_evidence": [ "[Barret Zoph](https://officechai.com/ai/thinking-machines-cto-barret-zoph-two-other-senior-researchers-rejoin-openai/) and Luke Metz followed in January 2026, both returning to OpenAI along with a third former OpenAI staffer, Sam Schoenholz, in a coordinated set of announcements that Murati and OpenAI\u2019s Fidji Simo made barely an hour apart.", "# Thinking Machines\u2019 Cofounder Lillian Weng Quits In Fourth Co-founder Exit" ], "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/education/news/degrees-of-intelligence-where-metas-top-agi-scientists-studied-and-why-it-matters/articleshow/122227165.cms", "title": "Degrees of intelligence: Where Meta's top AGI scientists studied and why it matters", "published_at": "2025-07-03T11:13:00", "researcher": "Trapit Bansal", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Member of Technical Staff", "researcher_evidence": [ "Degrees of intelligence: Where Meta's top AGI scientists studied and why it matters", "Trapit Bansal: IIT Kanpur to UMass Amherst", "In June 2025, he transitioned to Meta Superintelligence Lab, one of the most high-profile hires in recent memory." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Degrees of intelligence: Where Meta's top AGI scientists studied and why it matters", "He joined OpenAI in January 2022 as a Member of Technical Staff, contributing to GPT-4 and leading development on the internal \u201co1\u201d reasoning model." ] }, { "url": "https://mitrade.com/ae-en/insights/news/live-news/article-3-2036955-20260827", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab co-founder returns to Google after OpenAI detour", "published_at": "2026-08-27T13:23:13", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "vice president of research", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab co-founder returns to Google after OpenAI detour", "Barret Zoph is back to where he started after the Thinking Machines Lab co-founder announced on X that he had returned to Google DeepMind." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab co-founder returns to Google after OpenAI detour", "Zoph expressed his excitement to be \u201cjoining Google DeepMind!\u201d as vice president of research." ] }, { "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/25/metas-recruiting-blitz-claims-three-openai-researchers", "title": "Meta\u2019s recruiting blitz claims three OpenAI researchers", "published_at": "2025-06-26T04:50:12", "researcher": "Lucas Beyer", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "# Meta\u2019s recruiting blitz claims three OpenAI researchers", "The latest victory in Zuckerberg\u2019s widely reported recruiting blitz: Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai \u2014 who established OpenAI\u2019s Zurich office \u2014 have joined Meta\u2019s superintelligence team, the WSJ reports, suggesting Zuckerberg\u2019s methods can deliver." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/25/metas-recruiting-blitz-claims-three-openai-researchers", "title": "Meta\u2019s recruiting blitz claims three OpenAI researchers", "published_at": "2025-06-26T04:50:12", "researcher": "Alexander Kolesnikov", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "# Meta\u2019s recruiting blitz claims three OpenAI researchers", "The latest victory in Zuckerberg\u2019s widely reported recruiting blitz: Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai \u2014 who established OpenAI\u2019s Zurich office \u2014 have joined Meta\u2019s superintelligence team, the WSJ reports, suggesting Zuckerberg\u2019s methods can deliver." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/25/metas-recruiting-blitz-claims-three-openai-researchers", "title": "Meta\u2019s recruiting blitz claims three OpenAI researchers", "published_at": "2025-06-26T04:50:12", "researcher": "Xiaohua Zhai", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "# Meta\u2019s recruiting blitz claims three OpenAI researchers", "The latest victory in Zuckerberg\u2019s widely reported recruiting blitz: Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai \u2014 who established OpenAI\u2019s Zurich office \u2014 have joined Meta\u2019s superintelligence team, the WSJ reports, suggesting Zuckerberg\u2019s methods can deliver." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://newslocker.com/en-us/news/webdesign/meta-hired-luke-metz-seven-months-after-openai-hired-him-back", "title": "Meta hired Luke Metz seven months after OpenAI hired him back - Web design news - NewsLocker", "published_at": "2026-08-25T10:32:00", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "- # [Meta hired Luke Metz seven months after OpenAI hired him back](https://www.newslocker.com/en-us/news/webdesign/meta-hired-luke-metz-seven-months-after-openai-hired-him-back/view/)", "Luke Metz has joined Meta Superintelligence Labs, seven months after rejoining OpenAI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://citybiz.co/article/895072/google-deepmind-hires-thinking-machines-co-founder-barret-zoph-as-research-vp", "title": "Google DeepMind Hires Thinking Machines Co-Founder Barret Zoph as Research VP", "published_at": "2026-08-27T12:25:35", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "vice president of research", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Google DeepMind Hires Thinking Machines Co-Founder Barret Zoph as Research VP", "[**Google DeepMind**](https://deepmind.google/) has hired [**Barret Zoph**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/barret-zoph-65990543/), co-founder and former chief technology officer of **Thinking Machines Lab**, as a vice president of research, bringing the artificial intelligence researcher back to Alphabet after a brief stint at OpenAI, according to media reports." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Google DeepMind Hires Thinking Machines Co-Founder Barret Zoph as Research VP", "[**Google DeepMind**](https://deepmind.google/) has hired [**Barret Zoph**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/barret-zoph-65990543/), co-founder and former chief technology officer of **Thinking Machines Lab**, as a vice president of research, bringing the artificial intelligence researcher back to Alphabet after a brief stint at OpenAI, according to media reports." ] }, { "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/16/meta-reportedly-scores-two-more-high-profile-openai-researchers", "title": "Meta reportedly scores two more high-profile OpenAI researchers", "published_at": "2025-07-16T13:19:29", "researcher": "Jason Wei", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "o3 and deep research models", "researcher_evidence": [ "In Brief\nPosted:\n\n![Mark Zuckerberg photo with Meta logo overlay](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/GettyImages-2209215388.jpg?w=1024)\n\n# Meta reportedly scores two more high-profile OpenAI researchers", "OpenAI researcher Jason Wei will join Meta\u2019s new Superintelligence Lab, reports [Wired](https://www.wired.com/story/jason-wei-open-ai-meta/), citing two sources familiar with the matter." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "In Brief\nPosted:\n\n![Mark Zuckerberg photo with Meta logo overlay](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/GettyImages-2209215388.jpg?w=1024)\n\n# Meta reportedly scores two more high-profile OpenAI researchers", "Wei\u2019s main focus at OpenAI was o3 and deep research models." ] }, { "url": "https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/thinking-machines-lab-co-founder-barret-zoph-who-abruptly-left-the-company-he-founded-after-fight-with-ceo-mira-murati-joins-google-after-leving-openai-in-less-than-6-months/amp_articleshow/133565383.cms", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab co-founder Barret Zoph who abruptly left the company he founded after fight with CEO Mira Murati joins Google, after leaving OpenAI in less than 6 months", "published_at": "2026-08-27T10:34:00", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "vice president of research", "researcher_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab co-founder Barret Zoph who abruptly left the company he founded after fight with CEO Mira Murati joins Google, after leaving OpenAI in less than 6 months", "# Thinking Machines Lab co-founder Barret Zoph who abruptly left the company he founded after fight with CEO Mira Murati joins Google, after leaving OpenAI in less than 6 months" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Barret Zoph, the co-founder of Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab has joined Google as the vice president of research, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.", "# Thinking Machines Lab co-founder Barret Zoph who abruptly left the company he founded after fight with CEO Mira Murati joins Google, after leaving OpenAI in less than 6 months" ] }, { "url": "https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/thinking-machines-lab-co-founder-barret-zoph-who-abruptly-left-the-company-he-founded-after-fight-with-ceo-mira-murati-joins-google-after-leving-openai-in-less-than-6-months/amp_articleshow/133565383.cms", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab co-founder Barret Zoph who abruptly left the company he founded after fight with CEO Mira Murati joins Google, after leaving OpenAI in less than 6 months", "published_at": "2026-08-27T10:34:00", "researcher": "John Jumper", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "In June, Character.AI co-founder Noam Shazeer departed Google for OpenAI, while John Jumper, who shared a Nobel Prize for his work on protein folding, left Google for Anthropic.", "# Thinking Machines Lab co-founder Barret Zoph who abruptly left the company he founded after fight with CEO Mira Murati joins Google, after leaving OpenAI in less than 6 months" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46563068/microsoft-raids-google-deepmind-to-supercharge-ai-copilot-even-as-redmond-cuts-9000-jobs-elsewhere-r", "title": "Benzinga", "published_at": "2025-07-23T02:12:19", "researcher": "Amar Subramanya", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "corporate vice president", "researcher_evidence": [ "Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has reportedly been aggressively expanding its artificial intelligence team by poaching top engineers from Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google DeepMind.", "Among the high-profile hires is Amar Subramanya, a 16-year Google veteran who helped develop the Gemini assistant." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has reportedly been aggressively expanding its artificial intelligence team by poaching top engineers from Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google DeepMind.", "He announced this week on LinkedIn that he's joined Microsoft AI as a corporate vice president." ] }, { "url": "https://benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46563068/microsoft-raids-google-deepmind-to-supercharge-ai-copilot-even-as-redmond-cuts-9000-jobs-elsewhere-r", "title": "Benzinga", "published_at": "2025-07-23T02:12:19", "researcher": "Adam Sadovsky", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "distinguished software engineer", "researcher_evidence": [ "Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has reportedly been aggressively expanding its artificial intelligence team by poaching top engineers from Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google DeepMind.", "In June, Adam Sadovsky, a distinguished software engineer with nearly 18 years at Google, made a similar jump to become a CVP at Microsoft." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has reportedly been aggressively expanding its artificial intelligence team by poaching top engineers from Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google DeepMind.", "In June, Adam Sadovsky, a distinguished software engineer with nearly 18 years at Google, made a similar jump to become a CVP at Microsoft." ] }, { "url": "https://benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46563068/microsoft-raids-google-deepmind-to-supercharge-ai-copilot-even-as-redmond-cuts-9000-jobs-elsewhere-r", "title": "Benzinga", "published_at": "2025-07-23T02:12:19", "researcher": "Sonal Gupta", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "engineering lead", "researcher_evidence": [ "Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has reportedly been aggressively expanding its artificial intelligence team by poaching top engineers from Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google DeepMind.", "Sonal Gupta, formerly an engineering lead at DeepMind, also joined Microsoft AI this month." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has reportedly been aggressively expanding its artificial intelligence team by poaching top engineers from Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google DeepMind.", "Sonal Gupta, formerly an engineering lead at DeepMind, also joined Microsoft AI this month." ] }, { "url": "https://benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46563068/microsoft-raids-google-deepmind-to-supercharge-ai-copilot-even-as-redmond-cuts-9000-jobs-elsewhere-r", "title": "Benzinga", "published_at": "2025-07-23T02:12:19", "researcher": "Jonas Rothfuss", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "research scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has reportedly been aggressively expanding its artificial intelligence team by poaching top engineers from Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google DeepMind.", "In May, Jonas Rothfuss, a former research scientist at DeepMind, made the move as well." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has reportedly been aggressively expanding its artificial intelligence team by poaching top engineers from Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google DeepMind.", "In May, Jonas Rothfuss, a former research scientist at DeepMind, made the move as well." ] }, { "url": "https://dataconomy.com/2026/07/30/lilian-weng-rejoins-openai-lead-ai-research-team", "title": "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI To Lead Internal AI Research Team - Dataconomy", "published_at": "2026-07-30T10:10:40", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead a top-level team focused on accelerating OpenAI\u2019s internal research", "researcher_evidence": [ "Lilian Weng, a co-founder of Thinking Machines, is leaving the startup and rejoining OpenAI, the company told [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/29/thinking-machines-co-founder-lilian-weng-left-the-company-citing-health-reasons-then-joined-openai/) on Wednesday." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "A company spokesperson said Weng will lead a top-level team focused on accelerating OpenAI\u2019s internal research." ] }, { "url": "https://newsbytesapp.com/news/science/key-founders-exit-mira-murati-s-ai-venture-to-rejoin-openai/story", "title": "Key founders exit Mira Murati's AI venture to rejoin OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-01-15T04:53:19", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "CTO", "researcher_evidence": [ "Key founders exit Mira Murati's AI venture to rejoin OpenAI", "The departures include Barret Zoph, the company's co-founder and CTO; Luke Metz, another co-founder; and Sam Schoenholz, a key team member." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Key founders exit Mira Murati's AI venture to rejoin OpenAI", "The departures include Barret Zoph, the company's co-founder and CTO; Luke Metz, another co-founder; and Sam Schoenholz, a key team member." ] }, { "url": "https://newsbytesapp.com/news/science/key-founders-exit-mira-murati-s-ai-venture-to-rejoin-openai/story", "title": "Key founders exit Mira Murati's AI venture to rejoin OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-01-15T04:53:19", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Co-founder", "researcher_evidence": [ "Key founders exit Mira Murati's AI venture to rejoin OpenAI", "The departures include Barret Zoph, the company's co-founder and CTO; Luke Metz, another co-founder; and Sam Schoenholz, a key team member." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Key founders exit Mira Murati's AI venture to rejoin OpenAI", "The departures include Barret Zoph, the company's co-founder and CTO; Luke Metz, another co-founder; and Sam Schoenholz, a key team member." ] }, { "url": "https://newsbytesapp.com/news/science/key-founders-exit-mira-murati-s-ai-venture-to-rejoin-openai/story", "title": "Key founders exit Mira Murati's AI venture to rejoin OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-01-15T04:53:19", "researcher": "Sam Schoenholz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Key team member", "researcher_evidence": [ "Key founders exit Mira Murati's AI venture to rejoin OpenAI", "The departures include Barret Zoph, the company's co-founder and CTO; Luke Metz, another co-founder; and Sam Schoenholz, a key team member." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Key founders exit Mira Murati's AI venture to rejoin OpenAI", "The departures include Barret Zoph, the company's co-founder and CTO; Luke Metz, another co-founder; and Sam Schoenholz, a key team member." ] }, { "url": "https://dailydropout.substack.com/p/thinking-machines-lab-the-biggest", "title": "\ud83d\ude80 Thinking Machines: AI that thinks, listens, and talks", "published_at": "2026-06-16T14:05:05", "researcher": "Andrew Tulloch", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "co-founder", "researcher_evidence": [ "# \ud83d\ude80 Thinking Machines Lab: The Biggest Seed Ever", "## \ud83d\udd0e Why We Like It", "Worse, the dream team is thinning: co-founder Andrew Tulloch [left for Meta](https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/11/thinking-machines-lab-co-founder-andrew-tulloch-heads-to-meta/), and CTO Barret Zoph plus others [went back to OpenAI](https://fortune.com/2026/01/16/mira-murati-thinking-machines-staff-defections-openai-zoph-metz-schoenholz/). In a war for talent and compute against OpenAI," ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# \ud83d\ude80 Thinking Machines Lab: The Biggest Seed Ever", "## \ud83d\udd0e Why We Like It", "Worse, the dream team is thinning: co-founder Andrew Tulloch [left for Meta](https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/11/thinking-machines-lab-co-founder-andrew-tulloch-heads-to-meta/), and CTO Barret Zoph plus others [went back to OpenAI](https://fortune.com/2026/01/16/mira-murati-thinking-machines-staff-defections-openai-zoph-metz-schoenholz/). In a war for talent and compute against OpenAI," ] }, { "url": "https://dailydropout.substack.com/p/thinking-machines-lab-the-biggest", "title": "\ud83d\ude80 Thinking Machines: AI that thinks, listens, and talks", "published_at": "2026-06-16T14:05:05", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "CTO", "researcher_evidence": [ "# \ud83d\ude80 Thinking Machines Lab: The Biggest Seed Ever", "## \ud83d\udd0e Why We Like It", "Worse, the dream team is thinning: co-founder Andrew Tulloch [left for Meta](https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/11/thinking-machines-lab-co-founder-andrew-tulloch-heads-to-meta/), and CTO Barret Zoph plus others [went back to OpenAI](https://fortune.com/2026/01/16/mira-murati-thinking-machines-staff-defections-openai-zoph-metz-schoenholz/). In a war for talent and compute against OpenAI," ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# \ud83d\ude80 Thinking Machines Lab: The Biggest Seed Ever", "## \ud83d\udd0e Why We Like It", "Worse, the dream team is thinning: co-founder Andrew Tulloch [left for Meta](https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/11/thinking-machines-lab-co-founder-andrew-tulloch-heads-to-meta/), and CTO Barret Zoph plus others [went back to OpenAI](https://fortune.com/2026/01/16/mira-murati-thinking-machines-staff-defections-openai-zoph-metz-schoenholz/). In a war for talent and compute against OpenAI," ] }, { "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/27/meta-is-offering-multimillion-dollar-pay-for-ai-researchers-but-not-100m-signing-bonuses", "title": "Meta is offering multimillion-dollar pay for AI researchers, but not $100M \u2018signing bonuses\u2019", "published_at": "2025-06-27T19:02:42", "researcher": "Lucas Beyer", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "computer vision AI", "researcher_evidence": [ "On Thursday, researcher Lucas Beyer confirmed he was leaving OpenAI to join Meta [along with the two others who led OpenAI\u2019s Zurich office](https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-poaches-three-openai-researchers-eb55eea9?mod=tech_lead_pos3).", "Meta is definitely offering hefty multimillion-dollar pay packages to AI researchers when wooing them to its new superintelligence lab." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Beyer\u2019s expertise is in computer vision AI.", "Meta is definitely offering hefty multimillion-dollar pay packages to AI researchers when wooing them to its new superintelligence lab." ] }, { "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/27/meta-is-offering-multimillion-dollar-pay-for-ai-researchers-but-not-100m-signing-bonuses", "title": "Meta is offering multimillion-dollar pay for AI researchers, but not $100M \u2018signing bonuses\u2019", "published_at": "2025-06-27T19:02:42", "researcher": "Trapit Bansal", "left_lab": "OpenAI", "joined_lab": "Meta", "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "AI reasoning models", "researcher_evidence": [ "As TechCrunch was first to report, [Meta has hired OpenAI\u2019s Trapit Bansal](https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/26/meta-hires-key-openai-researcher-to-work-on-ai-reasoning-models/), known for his groundbreaking work on AI reasoning models.", "Meta is definitely offering hefty multimillion-dollar pay packages to AI researchers when wooing them to its new superintelligence lab." ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "As TechCrunch was first to report, [Meta has hired OpenAI\u2019s Trapit Bansal](https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/26/meta-hires-key-openai-researcher-to-work-on-ai-reasoning-models/), known for his groundbreaking work on AI reasoning models.", "Meta is definitely offering hefty multimillion-dollar pay packages to AI researchers when wooing them to its new superintelligence lab." ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "As TechCrunch was first to report, [Meta has hired OpenAI\u2019s Trapit Bansal](https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/26/meta-hires-key-openai-researcher-to-work-on-ai-reasoning-models/), known for his groundbreaking work on AI reasoning models.", "Meta is definitely offering hefty multimillion-dollar pay packages to AI researchers when wooing them to its new superintelligence lab." ], "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "As TechCrunch was first to report, [Meta has hired OpenAI\u2019s Trapit Bansal](https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/26/meta-hires-key-openai-researcher-to-work-on-ai-reasoning-models/), known for his groundbreaking work on AI reasoning models.", "Meta is definitely offering hefty multimillion-dollar pay packages to AI researchers when wooing them to its new superintelligence lab." ] }, { "url": "https://news.geobrowser.io/story/354c409db5f64b4eb9e8f9c397106a29", "title": "Meta Hires Five Thinking Machines Lab Founders Including Reported $1.5 Billion Engineer \u2014 Geo News", "published_at": "2026-04-21T12:04:47", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": null, "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta Hires Five Thinking Machines Lab Founders Including Reported $1.5 Billion Engineer \u2014 Geo News", "Meta's systematic recruitment of Thinking Machines Lab founders", "Barret Zoph and Luke Metz returned to OpenAI from 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"left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": null }, { "url": "https://on.theverge.com/anthropic", "title": "Anthropic", "published_at": "2026-05-22T22:55:54", "researcher": "Andrej Karpathy", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "R&D", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Anthropic", "Former Tesla AI boss Andrej Karpathy is joining Anthropic." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Anthropic", "Karpathy, who had also been on the founding team of OpenAI, says he will [be working](https://x.com/karpathy/status/2056753169888334312) on R&D at Anthropic." ] }, { "url": "http://en.zicos.com/tech/i32458568-Mira-Muratis-Thinking-Machines-Lab-Loses-Key-Leaders-as-They-Return-to-OpenAI.html", "title": "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Loses Key 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"http://allusanewshub.com/2026/04/21/meta-has-hired-five-founding-members-of-mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab-in-a-systematic-talent-raid", "title": "Meta has hired five founding members of Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab in a systematic talent raid", "published_at": "2026-04-21T17:53:40", "researcher": "Andrew Tulloch", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "AI researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "### Meta has hired five founding members of Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab in a systematic talent raid", "The most expensive individual hire, co-founder Andrew Tulloch, reportedly received a $1.5 billion package over six years.", "Tulloch, an AI researcher who had previously worked at OpenAI, joined Meta Superintelligence Labs and is now working under Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old former Scale AI chief executive whom Meta installed as its first chief AI officer in June 2025." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, 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"title": "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab AI startup raising funds at $50 Billion Valuation", "published_at": "2025-11-13T00:00:00", "researcher": "John Schulman", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Chief Scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab AI startup raising funds at $50 Billion Valuation", "Schulman departed OpenAI in August for Anthropic, and then left Anthropic for Thinking Machines Lab." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab AI startup raising funds at $50 Billion Valuation", "Murati is CEO, Barret Zoph is CTO and John Schulman is Chief Scientist." ] }, { "url": "https://reuters.com/business/apples-ai-search-executive-robby-walker-leave-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-09-12", "title": "Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to leave, Bloomberg News reports", "published_at": "2025-09-12T19:53:55", "researcher": "Ruoming Pang", "left_lab": "Apple", "joined_lab": "Meta Platforms", "move_month": "2025-07", "move_date_basis": "reporting", "role": "top executive in charge of AI models", "researcher_evidence": [ "The list includes Ruoming Pang, Apple's top executive in charge of AI models, according to a Bloomberg report from July.", "# Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to leave, Bloomberg News reports" ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "Recently, Apple has seen a slew of its AI executives leave to join Meta Platforms [(META.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/META.O).", "# Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to leave, Bloomberg News reports" ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "Recently, Apple has seen a slew of its AI executives leave to join Meta Platforms [(META.O), opens new tab](https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/META.O).", "# Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to 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"Mark Lee", "left_lab": "Apple", "joined_lab": "Meta Platforms", "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "AI researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta has also hired two other Apple AI researchers, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter \u2014 who worked closely with Pang \u2014 for its Superintelligence Labs team.", "# Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to leave, Bloomberg News reports" ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "Meta has also hired two other Apple AI researchers, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter \u2014 who worked closely with Pang \u2014 for its Superintelligence Labs team.", "# Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to leave, Bloomberg News reports" ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "Meta has also hired two other Apple AI researchers, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter \u2014 who worked closely with Pang \u2014 for its Superintelligence Labs team.", "# Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to leave, Bloomberg News reports" ], "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Meta has also hired two other Apple AI researchers, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter \u2014 who worked closely with Pang \u2014 for its Superintelligence Labs team.", "# Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to leave, Bloomberg News reports" ] }, { "url": "https://reuters.com/business/apples-ai-search-executive-robby-walker-leave-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-09-12", "title": "Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to leave, Bloomberg News reports", "published_at": "2025-09-12T19:53:55", "researcher": "Tom Gunter", "left_lab": "Apple", "joined_lab": "Meta Platforms", "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "AI researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Meta has also hired two other Apple AI researchers, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter \u2014 who worked closely with Pang \u2014 for its Superintelligence Labs team.", "# Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to leave, Bloomberg News reports" ], "left_lab_evidence": [ "Meta has also hired two other Apple AI researchers, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter \u2014 who worked closely with Pang \u2014 for its Superintelligence Labs team.", "# Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to leave, Bloomberg News reports" ], "joined_lab_evidence": [ "Meta has also hired two other Apple AI researchers, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter \u2014 who worked closely with Pang \u2014 for its Superintelligence Labs team.", "# Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to leave, Bloomberg News reports" ], "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Meta has also hired two other Apple AI researchers, Mark Lee and Tom Gunter \u2014 who worked closely with Pang \u2014 for its Superintelligence Labs team.", "# Apple's AI and search executive Robby Walker to leave, Bloomberg News reports" ] }, { "url": "https://outlookbusiness.com/deeptech/artificial-intelligence/mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab-takes-talent-hit-two-cofounders-researcher-rejoin-openai", "title": "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-01-15T07:40:13", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Cofounder", "researcher_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "Co-founders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, plus researcher Sam Schoenholz, return to OpenAI; Murati names Soumith Chintala as Thinking Machines\u2019 new CTO", "Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati\u2019s high-profile startup, Thinking Machines Lab, lost two of its co-founders on Wednesday after OpenAI announced the rehiring of Barret Zoph and Luke Metz." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "Co-founders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, plus researcher Sam Schoenholz, return to OpenAI; Murati names Soumith Chintala as Thinking Machines\u2019 new CTO", "Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati\u2019s high-profile startup, Thinking Machines Lab, lost two of its co-founders on Wednesday after OpenAI announced the rehiring of Barret Zoph and Luke Metz." ] }, { "url": "https://outlookbusiness.com/deeptech/artificial-intelligence/mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab-takes-talent-hit-two-cofounders-researcher-rejoin-openai", "title": "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-01-15T07:40:13", "researcher": "Luke Metz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Cofounder", "researcher_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "Co-founders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, plus researcher Sam Schoenholz, return to OpenAI; Murati names Soumith Chintala as Thinking Machines\u2019 new CTO", "Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati\u2019s high-profile startup, Thinking Machines Lab, lost two of its co-founders on Wednesday after OpenAI announced the rehiring of Barret Zoph and Luke Metz." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "Co-founders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, plus researcher Sam Schoenholz, return to OpenAI; Murati names Soumith Chintala as Thinking Machines\u2019 new CTO", "Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati\u2019s high-profile startup, Thinking Machines Lab, lost two of its co-founders on Wednesday after OpenAI announced the rehiring of Barret Zoph and Luke Metz." ] }, { "url": "https://outlookbusiness.com/deeptech/artificial-intelligence/mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab-takes-talent-hit-two-cofounders-researcher-rejoin-openai", "title": "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-01-15T07:40:13", "researcher": "Sam Schoenholz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two Cofounders & Researcher Rejoin OpenAI", "Co-founders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, plus researcher Sam Schoenholz, return to OpenAI; Murati names Soumith Chintala as Thinking Machines\u2019 new CTO", "OpenAI also confirmed the return of researcher Sam Schoenholz." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab Takes Talent Hit, Two 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"move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "On Tuesday, Amar Subramanya, who worked at Google for 16 years, most recently as a vice president of engineering developing the Gemini assistant, said on LinkedIn that he has joined Microsoft AI as a corporate vice president." ] }, { "url": "https://cnbc.com/amp/2025/07/22/microsoft-google-deepmind-ai-talent.html", "title": "Microsoft poaches more Google DeepMind AI talent as it beefs up Copilot", "published_at": "2025-07-22T12:32:36", "researcher": "Adam Sadovsky", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "corporate vice president at Microsoft AI", "researcher_evidence": [ "In June, Adam Sadovsky, with nearly 18 years of experience at Google, most recently as a distinguished software engineer and senior director at DeepMind, decamped to Microsoft." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "He's now a corporate vice president at Microsoft AI." ] }, { "url": "https://cnbc.com/amp/2025/07/22/microsoft-google-deepmind-ai-talent.html", "title": "Microsoft poaches more Google DeepMind AI talent as it beefs up Copilot", "published_at": "2025-07-22T12:32:36", "researcher": "Sonal Gupta", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "member of technical staff", "researcher_evidence": [ "Earlier this month, Sonal Gupta, a Google DeepMind engineering lead, said on her LinkedIn profile that she's now a member of technical staff on Mustafa Suleyman's Microsoft AI team." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Earlier this month, Sonal Gupta, a Google DeepMind engineering lead, said on her LinkedIn profile that she's now a member of technical staff on Mustafa Suleyman's Microsoft AI 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"Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "CTO", "researcher_evidence": [ "OpenAI co-founder John Schulman is the company\u2019s chief scientist, and Barret Zoph, OpenAI\u2019s ex-chief research officer, is CTO.", "February 19, 2025 Share via: Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has announced her new startup." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "OpenAI co-founder John Schulman is the company\u2019s chief scientist, and Barret Zoph, OpenAI\u2019s ex-chief research officer, is CTO.", "February 19, 2025 Share via: Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has announced her new startup." ] }, { "url": "https://m.economictimes.com/tech/artificial-intelligence/meta-microsoft-hire-top-ai-talent-from-deepmind/articleshow/122853819.cms", "title": "Meta, Microsoft hire top AI talent from DeepMind", "published_at": "2025-07-23T07:35:46", 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Lots of news for you this week \u2014 Travis Kalanick is possibly returning to the world of self-driving vehicles, CoreWeave\u2019s CEO is now worth $10 billion, Apple users aren\u2019t happy with how the company is promoting its new \u201cF1\u201d movie, and much more.", "**And another one:** Meta [snagged a key OpenAI researcher](https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/26/meta-hires-key-openai-researcher-to-work-on-ai-reasoning-models/), Trapit Bansal, to boost its new AI superintelligence team." ] }, { "url": "https://finance.biggo.com/news/ENeWv5sB5f-9gHaOhywI", "title": "AI Talent War Takes Dramatic Turn: Thinking Machines Co-Founder Makes Lightning Return to OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-01-15T02:57:51", "researcher": "Barret Zoph", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "VP of Post-Training Research", "researcher_evidence": [ "# AI Talent War Takes Dramatic Turn: Thinking Machines Co-Founder Makes Lightning Return to OpenAI", "Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, co-founders of the high-profile startup Thinking Machines Lab, have abruptly left the company they started less than a year ago to return to their former employer, OpenAI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "| Person | Previous Role at OpenAI | Key Contributions |", "| **Barret Zoph** | VP of Post-Training Research | Key behind-the-scenes contributor to GPT-4; 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contributed to models like GPT-4 and GPT-4o |" ] }, { "url": "https://finance.biggo.com/news/ENeWv5sB5f-9gHaOhywI", "title": "AI Talent War Takes Dramatic Turn: Thinking Machines Co-Founder Makes Lightning Return to OpenAI", "published_at": "2026-01-15T02:57:51", "researcher": "Sam Schoenholz", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "Researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "# AI Talent War Takes Dramatic Turn: Thinking Machines Co-Founder Makes Lightning Return to OpenAI", "OpenAI's Chief Applications Officer, Fidji Simo, publicly posted a warm welcome for the return of Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and another researcher, Sam Schoenholz, to OpenAI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "| Person | Previous Role at OpenAI | Key Contributions |", "| **Sam Schoenholz** | Researcher | Contributed to models like GPT-4o; focused on learning optimization research |" ] }, { "url": "https://freedom251.com/meta-taps-former-google-deepmind-director-to-lead-its-ai-research-lab", "title": "Meta taps former Google DeepMind director to lead its AI research lab", "published_at": "2026-05-17T04:21:53", "researcher": "Jack Rae", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "research director", "researcher_evidence": [ "Guide", "Meta has hired **Jack Rae**, a former research director at **Google DeepMind**, to take on a senior leadership role at its AI research organization, commonly associated with **FAIR**, Meta\u2019s Fundamental AI Research lab." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Guide", "Meta has hired **Jack Rae**, a former research director at **Google DeepMind**, to take on a senior leadership role at its AI research organization, commonly associated with **FAIR**, Meta\u2019s Fundamental AI Research lab." ] }, { "url": "https://vmtech.rs/en/instagram-insights/lilian-weng-rejoins-openai-research", "title": "Lilian Weng Rejoins OpenAI Research Team \u2014 VMTech", "published_at": "2026-07-31T09:00:40", "researcher": "Lilian Weng", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "lead internal research", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Lilian Weng leaves Thinking Machines and returns to OpenAI to lead internal research", "On July 29, 2026, OpenAI confirmed that Lilian Weng would rejoin the company, two days after the Thinking Machines co-founder announced her departure on health grounds." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Lilian Weng leaves Thinking Machines and returns to OpenAI to lead internal research", "An OpenAI spokesperson said Weng will lead a top-level team supporting work across research groups." ] }, { "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/artificial-intelligence/meta-microsoft-hire-top-ai-talent-from-deepmind/articleshow/122853819.cms", "title": "Meta, Microsoft hire top AI talent from DeepMind", "published_at": "2025-07-23T07:35:46", "researcher": "Jonas Rothfuss", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "research scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Meta, Microsoft hire top AI talent from DeepMind", "- Jonas Rothfuss, who spent a year at Google DeepMind as a research scientist. 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"move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "corporate vice president", "researcher_evidence": [ "Amar Subramanya, who worked at Google for 16 years, most recently as a vice president of engineering for the Gemini digital assistant, has posted on LinkedIn that he\u2019s joined [Microsoft\u2019s AI team](https://www.tipranks.com/news/the-fly/microsoft-poaches-more-talent-from-google-deepmind-cnbc-reports-thefly) as a corporate vice president." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Amar Subramanya, who worked at Google for 16 years, most recently as a vice president of engineering for the Gemini digital assistant, has posted on LinkedIn that he\u2019s joined [Microsoft\u2019s AI team](https://www.tipranks.com/news/the-fly/microsoft-poaches-more-talent-from-google-deepmind-cnbc-reports-thefly) as a corporate vice president." ] }, { "url": "https://tipranks.com/news/microsoft-msft-poaches-google-ai-staff-as-it-looks-to-enhance-copilot-assistant", "title": "Microsoft (MSFT) Poaches Google AI Staff as It Looks to Enhance \u2018Copilot\u2019", "published_at": "2025-07-22T20:27:41", "researcher": "Adam Sadovsky", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "corporate vice president", "researcher_evidence": [ "In June of this year, Adam Sadovsky, who spent nearly 18 years at Google as a software engineer and senior director at DeepMind, [left for Microsoft](https://www.tipranks.com/news/microsoft-stock-msft-hits-all-time-high-as-ai-trade-comes-roaring-back). He\u2019s now a corporate vice president at Microsoft", "He\u2019s now a corporate vice president at Microsoft AI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "He\u2019s now a corporate vice president at Microsoft AI." ] }, { "url": "https://kiwix.enszfarms.org/content/wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2025-08/Thinking_Machines_Lab", "title": "Thinking Machines Lab", "published_at": null, "researcher": "John Schulman", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "chief scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab" ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Thinking Machines Lab", "Key people | - Mira Murati (CEO) - [John Schulman](John_Schulman) (chief scientist)" ] }, { "url": "https://siliconvalleyinvestclub.com/investors/rohan-anil", "title": "Rohan Anil", "published_at": null, "researcher": "Rohan Anil", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "# Rohan Anil", "Rohan Anil is a researcher who left Google DeepMind in January 2025, where he had led work on the Gemini models, and then worked at Anthropic." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "# Rohan Anil", "Rohan Anil is a researcher who left Google DeepMind in January 2025, where he had led work on the Gemini models, and then worked at Anthropic." ] }, { "url": "https://eastbaytimes.com/2025/06/12/meta-taps-top-researchers-from-google-sesame-for-new-ai-lab", "title": "Meta taps top researchers from Google, Sesame for new AI lab", "published_at": "2025-06-12T14:06:11", "researcher": "Jack Rae", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "principal researcher", "researcher_evidence": [ "Jack Rae, a principal researcher at Google DeepMind, is expected to join Meta\u2019s \u201csuperintelligence\u201d team, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not public.", "Rae confirmed he\u2019s leaving Google for Meta, but declined to comment further." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Jack Rae, a principal researcher at Google DeepMind, is expected to join Meta\u2019s \u201csuperintelligence\u201d team, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not public." ] }, { "url": "https://windowsforum.com/windows-news.4/microsofts-bold-talent-push-hiring-deepmind-experts-to-lead-ai-revolution.374736", "title": "Microsoft\u2019s Bold Talent Push: Hiring DeepMind Experts to Lead AI Revolution", "published_at": "2025-07-24T23:51:52", "researcher": "Adam Sadovsky", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "corporate VP at Microsoft AI", "researcher_evidence": [ "In a striking development that\u2019s turning heads across the tech industry, Microsoft has dramatically ramped up its efforts to hire seasoned AI professionals, with a particularly aggressive campaign to recruit top talent from Google DeepMind.", "Adding to the momentum, Adam Sadovsky\u2014a nearly 18-year Google and DeepMind veteran\u2014joined Microsoft in June, also assuming the role of corporate VP at Microsoft AI." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "In a striking development that\u2019s turning heads across the tech industry, Microsoft has dramatically ramped up its efforts to hire seasoned AI professionals, with a particularly aggressive campaign to recruit top talent from Google DeepMind.", "Adding to the momentum, Adam Sadovsky\u2014a nearly 18-year Google and DeepMind veteran\u2014joined Microsoft in June, also assuming the role of corporate VP at Microsoft AI." ] }, { "url": "https://foreignpharmacydirectory.com/article/google-s-brain-drain-why-top-ai-talent-is-leaving-for-microsoft-others", "title": "Google's Brain Drain: Why Top AI Talent Is Leaving for Microsoft & Others (2026)", "published_at": "2026-07-29T01:23:14", "researcher": "Jonas Rothfuss", "left_lab": null, "joined_lab": null, "move_month": null, "move_date_basis": null, "role": "research scientist", "researcher_evidence": [ "**The Great AI Talent Exodus: Why Google Lost 11 Key Players to Microsoft (and Others) in 2025**", "**Engineers and Scientists:**", "- **Jonas Rothfuss:** This research scientist left Google DeepMind for a technical staff position on Microsoft's AI team." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": 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Thinking Machines Lab in recent months, following co-founder Andrew Tulloch\u2019s exit to Meta last October." ], "left_lab_evidence": null, "joined_lab_evidence": null, "move_month_evidence": null, "move_date_basis_evidence": null, "role_evidence": [ "Thinking Machines Lab \u2014 the startup launched by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati \u2014 is hemorrhaging key leadership as co-founders abandon ship to return to their former employer.", "The timing couldn\u2019t be more devastating\u2014especially considering this marks the second major departure from Thinking Machines Lab in recent months, following co-founder Andrew Tulloch\u2019s exit to Meta last October." ] } ], "notes": [ "Merged 15 queries (2976 total) \u2192 2756 unique results", "Search result set: r13f2369a208 (2756 rows), reference it as FROM r13f2369a208 in follow-up queries" ] }