February 19, 2025 – According to Bloomberg, a new AI startup has been founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer, Murati, along with several other executives from her previous employer.
Named Thinking Machines Lab, the company is dedicated to developing AI models and products that enable broader collaboration between humans and AI, targeting a wide range of industries. “While existing systems excel in programming and mathematics, we are developing AI that can adapt to various human professional domains and support wider applications,” the company stated.
Key members of Murati’s team include John Schulman, a co-founder of OpenAI who will serve as Chief Scientist at Thinking Machines Lab, and Barret Zoph, the former Vice President of Research at OpenAI, who will become the new company’s Chief Technology Officer. Wen Li, the former Vice President of Security at OpenAI, is also part of the team. The blog post mentioned that nearly 30 employees, including more than ten from OpenAI, are currently part of the team.
Since Murati’s departure from OpenAI last September, there has been much speculation in Silicon Valley about what her new company would be doing and how much funding it would raise. Sources reveal that Murati is in talks with venture capital companies for funding.
Although Thinking Machines Lab has not yet launched any specific products or models, the company emphasized that its philosophy differs from other AI companies. The blog post stated that researchers and product leads will collaborate to design AI systems that are easier to understand, more customizable, and more versatile.
“Rather than pursuing fully automated AI systems, we are excited about building multimodal systems that can collaborate with humans,” the company said, referring to AI models that can work across various media such as text, audio, and video.
Thinking Machines Lab is currently developing a series of new AI models aimed at driving breakthroughs in science and programming. At the same time, the company is still hiring talent, particularly in machine learning and research management.
Born in Albania and a graduate of Dartmouth College, Murati joined OpenAI in 2018 and was promoted to Chief Technology Officer in 2022. During her time at OpenAI, she led the launch of several significant products, including the popular ChatGPT and the voice mode, which enables users to have almost real-time conversations with AI. She also managed OpenAI’s technical team.
In late 2023, when OpenAI CEO Altman was briefly ousted by the board, Murati was appointed as the interim CEO. However, she soon joined the executive team supporting Altman’s reinstatement.
The following year after Altman’s reinstatement, there was a wave of departures among OpenAI executives, including Murati and others who founded their own AI companies.
For instance, OpenAI co-founder and former Chief Scientist Sutskever announced Safe Superintelligence in June this year, a research lab dedicated to building safe and powerful AI systems. Sutskever is currently raising over 1billionforhisnewcompany,valuedatover30 billion.
