The battle for top artificial intelligence talent is heating up as OpenAI brings back three senior researchers from a rival startup founded by a former executive. OpenAI has hired Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz, all of whom had earlier left to join Thinking Machines Lab, the AI company launched by former OpenAI executive Mira Murati.
The hirings were confirmed in a post on social media platform X by OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo. She wrote, “Excited to welcome Barret Zoph, Luke Metz and Sam Schoenholz back to OpenAI! This has been in the works for several weeks, and we’re thrilled to have them join the team. Barret will report to me; Luke and Sam will report into Barret. More to come on what they’ll focus on soon!” The move highlights the intense competition for experienced AI researchers in a sector now worth billions of dollars.
At the same time, Thinking Machines announced leadership changes. Murati said the company has “parted ways with Barret Zoph” and named Soumith Chintala as its new Chief Technology Officer. Murati added, “Soumith Chintala will be the new CTO of Thinking Machines. He is a brilliant and seasoned leader who has made important contributions to the AI field for over a decade, and he’s been a major contributor to our team. We could not be more excited to have him take on this new responsibility.”
Questions remain about what happened behind the scenes. A report by a global news agency cited an internal memo from Simo stating, “Just to clear the air — Barret told Mira on Monday January 12, he was considering leaving and she fired him today. You may have seen information from sources that Barrett was fired from Thinking Machines for ‘unethical reasons.’ We do not share these concerns.” Zoph did not respond to questions, the report said. A business magazine noted that Zoph and Metz were cofounders of Thinking Machines, while Schoenholz was part of the founding research team.
The departures come as a setback for Thinking Machines, which raised $2 billion in seed funding in July, the largest such round in Silicon Valley. Reports have also suggested that at least 2 more researchers may be leaving, with one expected to join OpenAI. A technology publication noted that startups are struggling to compete with the pay packages offered by major players like OpenAI, Google, and Meta, with sources saying most exits were driven by money.
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