Key Highlights:
- Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has unveiled her new startup, Thinking Machines Lab, dedicated to AI research and development.
- The company aims to create AI systems that are more understandable, customizable, and capable than current models.
- Co-founder of OpenAI John Schulman joins as Chief Scientist, and ex-OpenAI Chief Research Officer Barret Zoph is the CTO.
- Thinking Machines Lab is focusing on multimodal AI systems that work collaboratively with users and adapt to various applications.
- AI safety remains a core principle, with commitments to preventing misuse, sharing best practices, and supporting external AI alignment research.
- The company is actively hiring AI researchers, engineers, and program managers.
Thinking Machines Lab Emerges from Stealth, Led by Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati
Thinking Machines Lab, a new AI-focused startup, has officially launched under the leadership of former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati. The company aims to develop AI tools that cater to individual needs, making AI more accessible, adaptable, and understandable to a wider audience.
Murati, who left OpenAI in October 2023 after six years, serves as the CEO. Joining her are two other high-profile AI veterans: John Schulman, OpenAI co-founder and reinforcement learning expert, as Chief Scientist, and Barret Zoph, OpenAI’s former Chief Research Officer, as CTO.
Addressing Key Gaps in AI Development
According to a blog post released by the company, while AI capabilities have advanced significantly, critical gaps remain in the field.
“The scientific community’s understanding of frontier AI systems lags behind rapidly advancing capabilities,” the post states. “Knowledge of how these systems are trained is concentrated within the top research labs, limiting both the public discourse on AI and people’s abilities to use AI effectively.”
Thinking Machines Lab seeks to address these gaps by focusing on multimodal AI systems—models that can interact across different data types and function collaboratively with users. The company envisions AI tools that can adapt to a broad range of scientific, programming, and creative applications.
“We are building models at the frontier of capabilities in domains like science and programming,” the company notes. “The most advanced models will unlock transformative applications and benefits, such as enabling novel scientific discoveries and engineering breakthroughs.”
A Strong Emphasis on AI Safety
AI safety remains a cornerstone of Thinking Machines Lab’s mission. The startup plans to prevent model misuse by sharing best practices, publishing safety guidelines, and releasing model specifications and datasets to support external research.
“The most important breakthroughs often come from rethinking our objectives, not just optimizing existing metrics,” the company wrote.
Recruiting Top AI Talent
Thinking Machines Lab has been actively assembling a team of experts, with 29 employees listed on its website. The team includes researchers and engineers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Character AI, among others. The company is still hiring machine learning scientists, engineers, and a research program manager.
Funding Speculation
Rumors have circulated that Murati has been in discussions with venture capital firms to raise over $100 million in funding. However, the startup’s blog post did not confirm or deny these reports.
Murati’s Track Record in AI and Technology
Before co-founding Thinking Machines Lab, Murati played a pivotal role at OpenAI, leading the development of ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Codex, the foundation of GitHub’s Copilot coding assistant.
Prior to OpenAI, Murati worked at Tesla as a senior product manager for the Model X, where she contributed to the early development of Autopilot, the automaker’s AI-driven driver-assistance system. She also served as VP of Product and Engineering at Leap Motion, a company focused on hand-tracking technology.
Growing List of OpenAI Alumni Founding Startups
Murati joins a wave of former OpenAI executives launching their own AI ventures. Other notable ex-OpenAI leaders pursuing independent projects include:
- Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI, who recently launched Safe Superintelligence.
- The team behind Anthropic, another AI research lab founded by former OpenAI employees.
As Thinking Machines Lab steps into the AI arena, it remains to be seen how its approach to customization, safety, and accessibility will set it apart from existing AI leaders.
