Thinking Machines Lab co-founder to join Google
What's the story
Barret Zoph, the co-founder of artificial intelligence start-up Thinking Machines Lab, is set to join Google DeepMind as its Vice President of Research. The announcement was made by Zoph himself. His move comes amid a series of changes at DeepMind, including the recent stepping aside of DeepMind CEO Dennis Hassabis. Before this, he had a stint as the Vice President of Research at OpenAI and had briefly returned to the organization after leaving Thinking Machines earlier this year.
Career trajectory
Zoph's AI research career and recent industry shifts
Zoph's career in AI research spans six years at Google, where he worked as a research scientist at Google Brain from June 2016 to August 2022.
The team was later merged with DeepMind to form Google DeepMind in 2023.
From September to October 2022, Zoph served as OpenAI's VP of Research, Post-Training, before joining Thinking Machines Lab as a co-founder in October 2024. He left the start-up in January this year.
Information
Alphabet's ongoing AI lab reshuffle
Along with Zoph's appointment, Alphabet has also been reshuffling its AI lab. This includes transferring some teams from DeepMind to corporate Google. The development was first revealed during an all-hands meeting on August 6 and was reported by Reuters earlier this month, citing two sources.