Office Relationship of Thinking Machines Cofounder Came Before His Dismissal

Leaders at Mira confronted the startup’s cofounder and former CTO, Barret Zoph, regarding an alleged relationship with another employee last summer, according to WIRED.

This relationship likely pertains to the alleged “misconduct” previously reported, including by WIRED.

To maintain the privacy of those involved, WIRED is not identifying the employee in question. This individual, who was in a different department and held a leadership role, is no longer part of the lab.

Sources indicate that Murati discussed the relationship with Zoph. Following this conversation, the cofounders’ working relationship deteriorated, and Zoph began exploring opportunities with competitors.

Prior to leaving the company, Zoph was reportedly in talks with leaders from Meta Superintelligence Labs. He was eventually hired by OpenAI. Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of applications, mentioned that the hiring had been in preparation for weeks and expressed that she did not share Thinking Machines’ concerns regarding Zoph’s ethics.

Both Zoph and OpenAI declined to provide comments for this story.

Recently, another Thinking Machines cofounder, Luke Metz, along with at least three other researchers from Murati’s startup, also joined OpenAI. In October, cofounder Andrew Tulloch made the move to Meta.

While the tensions between Murati and Zoph escalated recently, they do not completely account for the wider departure of Thinking Machines employees.

WIRED has previously noted that there was a lack of alignment within Thinking Machines regarding the startup’s direction.

In November, Murati’s startup was reportedly seeking to raise funds at a valuation of $50 billion, an increase from its current valuation of $12 billion.

Thinking Machines Lab chose not to comment for this story.