Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati Launches AI Research And Product Startup

Nearly five months after stepping down as OpenAI’s chief technology officer (CTO), Mira Murati has launched her own AI venture, ‘Thinking Machines Lab’.

Announcing the launch on X, Murati said, “Our goal is simple, advance AI by making it broadly useful and understandable through solid foundations, open science and practical applications.”

The AI research and product startup aims to plug the existing gaps in AI and make these systems more widely understandable, customisable and generally capable.

“While AI capabilities have advanced dramatically, key gaps remain. The scientific community’s understanding of frontier AI systems lags behind rapidly advancing capabilities. Knowledge of how these systems are trained is concentrated within the top research labs, limiting both the public discourse on AI and people’s abilities to use AI effectively. And, despite their potential, these systems remain difficult for people to customize to their specific needs and values,” the company said in a blog post.  

Thinking Machines Lab will build personalised AI systems with advanced multimodal capabilities instead of focusing on making fully autonomous AI systems.

The AI startup said it plans to frequently publish technical blog posts, papers and code with an emphasis on human-AI collaboration across industries.

Thinking Machines Lab has about 30 employees, many of whom have worked previously with companies like OpenAI, Google Deep Mind, Character AI and Mistral AI.

In September last year, Murati left OpenAI after a six-year stint at the company. At the time of her departure, she said she was stepping away to “do her own exploration.” She is the CEO of Thinking Machines Lab.

Barret Zoph, who quit OpenAI last September, is the CTO of Thinking Machines Lab. Meanwhile, John Schulman, who left OpenAI for rival firm Anthropic last August, is the chief scientist at the firm.

Murati was said to be in talks to raise $100 Mn from unknown VC firms for her new AI venture.  In its blog post, the company did not confirm nor deny if it has raised money.

Thinking Machines Lab is the latest entrant in an already crowded AI startup space. It will lock horns with giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google and Microsoft, which are part of the global race to build generative AI models.

The growing demand for AI software and hardware across India has paved the way for a new breed of startups in the country, which focus on applying GenAI technologies in business and consumer applications, rather than building infrastructure

According to Inc42’s ‘The Rise of India’s GenAI Brigade’ report, India is home to over 200 GenAI startups, which have cumulatively raised $1.2 Bn in funding since 2020.