Leaders at Thinking Machines Lab addressed cofounder and former CTO Barret Zoph regarding an alleged relationship with an employee last summer. This relationship is likely the previously reported alleged "misconduct."
The employee involved, who held a leadership role in a different department, is no longer with Thinking Machines Lab. Their identity is not being disclosed.
Mira Murati discussed the relationship with Zoph. Following this conversation, the working relationship between the cofounders deteriorated. Zoph subsequently explored opportunities with other companies.
Prior to his departure from Thinking Machines Lab, Zoph held discussions with Meta Superintelligence Labs. He was later hired by OpenAI. Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of applications, stated that Zoph's hiring process had been ongoing for several weeks and that OpenAI did not share Thinking Machines' concerns regarding Zoph's ethics.
Zoph and OpenAI declined to provide comments for this report.
Recently, Luke Metz, another cofounder of Thinking Machines Lab, and at least three other researchers moved to OpenAI. In October, cofounder Andrew Tulloch departed for Meta.
While tensions between Murati and Zoph were reported, they do not fully account for the broader pattern of employee departures from Thinking Machines Lab. Previous reports indicated internal disagreements within Thinking Machines regarding the company's strategic direction.
In November, Thinking Machines Lab was reportedly seeking to raise capital at a $50 billion valuation, an increase from its previous $12 billion valuation.
Thinking Machines Lab also declined to comment.