Inside OpenAI’s Raid on Thinking Machines Lab

OpenAI is planning to bring over more researchers from Thinking Machines Lab after nabbing two cofounders, a source familiar with the situation says. Plus, the latest efforts to automate jobs with AI.

If someone ever makes an HBO Max series about the AI industry, the events of this week will make quite the episode.

On Wednesday, OpenAI’s CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, announced the company had rehired Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, cofounders of Mira Murati’s AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab. Zoph and Metz had left OpenAI in late 2024.

We reported last night on two narratives forming around what led to the departures, and have since learned new information.

A source with direct knowledge says that Thinking Machines leadership believed Zoph engaged in an incident of serious misconduct while at the company last year. That incident broke Murati’s trust, the source says, and disrupted the pair ...