Thinking Machines Lab: Mira Murati’s Innovative Startup Revolutionizing AI After OpenAI

Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has officially launched her new startup, Thinking Machines Lab, which is dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence (AI). This innovative venture aims to develop tools that make AI more accessible, customizable, and capable of meeting individual user needs.

About Thinking Machines Lab

Thinking Machines Lab emerged from stealth mode today, with Murati taking the helm as CEO. She is joined by notable figures in the AI community, including John Schulman, OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist, and Barret Zoph, former chief research officer at OpenAI, serving as CTO.

Mission and Vision

In a recent blog post shared with TechCrunch, Thinking Machines Lab outlined its mission to address the existing gaps in AI capabilities. The post highlighted that while advancements in AI have been significant, there is still a lack of understanding of frontier AI systems. Key points include:

• The concentration of knowledge about AI training within top research labs limits public discourse.
• Current AI systems are challenging for users to customize according to their personal needs and values.

Innovative AI Systems

Thinking Machines Lab is focusing on developing multimodal AI systems that can collaborate with users across various domains, including science and programming. The goal is to create models that unlock transformative applications and facilitate groundbreaking discoveries.

According to the blog post, “the most advanced models will unlock the most transformative applications and benefits, such as enabling novel scientific discoveries and engineering breakthroughs.”

Commitment to AI Safety

Another critical aspect of Thinking Machines Lab’s approach is AI safety. The company is committed to preventing the misuse of its models and aims to:

• Share best practices for building safe AI systems.
• Support external research by providing code, datasets, and model specifications.

Murati stated, “We’ll focus on understanding how our systems create genuine value in the real world.” This reflects the company’s philosophy that true breakthroughs often come from re-evaluating objectives rather than merely optimizing existing metrics.

Mira Murati’s Journey

Mira Murati parted ways with OpenAI last October after six impactful years, during which she held various roles, including VP of applied AI and partnerships. Her tenure included leadership on well-known projects like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Codex, which powered early versions of GitHub’s Copilot.

After a brief period as OpenAI’s interim CEO, Murati has now shifted her focus to building a new team at Thinking Machines Lab. Reports suggest she has been actively hiring top-tier AI researchers from companies such as OpenAI, Character AI, and Google DeepMind.

Future Plans and Opportunities

Thinking Machines Lab is currently seeking to expand its team by hiring machine learning scientists, engineers, and a research program manager. Murati is rumored to have been in discussions to secure over $100 million in funding from venture capital firms, though this has yet to be confirmed.

Before her time at OpenAI, Murati worked at Tesla as a senior product manager for the Model X, contributing to the development of early versions of Autopilot. Additionally, she served as VP of product and engineering at Leap Motion, a company focused on advanced motion sensor technology.

Mira Murati’s new venture is part of a growing trend among former OpenAI executives launching their startups, including notable names like Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence and Anthropic.

For more information on AI advancements, consider visiting OpenAI and other reputable sources in the field.