Mira Murati, the former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer, has recently launched her new AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, assembling a team of 30 top researchers and engineers. About 20 of these hires are former OpenAI employees, with additional experts coming from companies such as Meta and Mistral.

Key figures at the startup include John Schulman, an OpenAI co-founder who now serves as the company's Chief Scientist. Schulman left OpenAI for rival Anthropic in August, explaining that he wanted to "focus on AI alignment", as per a Reuters report. Another notable hire is Barret Zoph, a prominent researcher who departed from OpenAI on the same day as Murati in late September; he will serve as the startup's technology chief. Murati herself will lead the company as CEO.

In a blog post published on Tuesday, the company described itself as "an artificial intelligence research and product company" that is "building a future where everyone has access to the knowledge and tools to make AI work for their unique needs and goals". The post highlighted that although AI capabilities have advanced dramatically, "key gaps remain"—the scientific community still does not fully understand how frontier AI systems are trained, and current models are often difficult to customise for specific needs and values.

Thinking Machines Lab, as per the official announcement, aims to address these challenges by developing AI systems that are more widely understood, customisable, and capable. The company says it is focused on human-AI collaboration, building multimodal systems that work alongside people rather than operating fully autonomously. The team also stressed the importance of open research, stating, "Scientific progress is a collective effort", with plans to publish technical blog posts, papers, and code to foster broader discussion and development in the field.

Murati's new venture comes at a time when the AI startup landscape is highly competitive, with companies racing to build safer, more adaptable systems that can serve a broader range of applications. She is also one of several former OpenAI executives now venturing out, joining competitors like Anthropic and Safe Superintelligence—both of which have attracted ex-OpenAI talent and raised billions in funding, states a report by Reuters on the matter.