Albanian engineer Mira Murati has launched her new artificial intelligence project, Thinking Machines Lab, a San Francisco-based startup focused on building more understandable, customizable, and advanced AI systems for users across various fields. The company emphasizes transparency and collaboration, pledging to publish its research and code openly to benefit the wider AI community.
Thinking Machines Lab has attracted a team of approximately 30 top researchers and engineers, many of whom are former colleagues from OpenAI, as well as experts from tech giants like Google and Meta. Notable team members include John Schulman, a co-founder of OpenAI, who will serve as the head of research, and Barret Zoph, the startup’s Chief Technology Officer. The company’s mission centers on enhancing human-AI collaboration and ensuring AI systems align with human values, focusing on safety and reliability.
Murati’s departure from OpenAI in September 2024 marked the beginning of this new chapter. During her tenure at OpenAI, she played a pivotal role in developing groundbreaking projects such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, and GPT-4. Her leadership during a critical period, including a brief stint as interim CEO, showcased her commitment to advancing AI technology responsibly.
In her announcement, Murati highlighted the startup’s goals: “We’re building three things: helping people adapt AI systems to work for their specific needs, developing strong foundations to build more capable AI systems, fostering a culture of open science that helps the whole field understand and improve these systems.” This approach reflects a dedication to democratizing AI tools and knowledge, enabling users to tailor AI applications to their unique requirements.
Thinking Machines Lab is poised to address existing gaps in the AI landscape by focusing on open science and human-AI collaboration. By integrating advanced model intelligence with high-quality infrastructure and multimodal capabilities, the startup aims to advance AI understanding and usability across various industries. Murati’s vision is to create AI systems that are not only powerful but also transparent and accessible, fostering a deeper public comprehension of AI technologies.
