Thinking Machines co-founder Lilian Weng returns to OpenAI
What's the story
Lilian Weng, a co-founder of AI start-up Thinking Machines Lab, has announced her return to OpenAI. The decision comes after a challenging period at the start-up, which took a toll on her health. Weng had previously announced her departure from Thinking Machines this week, citing that she couldn't keep up with the fast-paced environment of a start-up.
Career shift
Weng's difficult decision
Weng expressed her struggles with the fast-paced start-up environment, saying, "I don't feel I'm able to continue at the pace a start-up requires."
She also admitted that the decision was difficult as she didn't want to disappoint her team at Thinking Machines. However, she was constantly worried about her health.
Despite these challenges, Weng remains passionate about AI research and is looking for a more structured role in a stable environment.
Past experience
Weng's career journey
Before co-founding Thinking Machines Lab, Weng worked at OpenAI from 2018 to late 2024, after stints at Facebook, Dropbox, and Affirm.
At OpenAI, she helped build the Applied AI Research team and led its Safety Systems work.
She also contributed to the development of OpenAI's GPT-4 model by working on pretraining data, model safety, evaluations, and deployment.
New position
New role at OpenAI
In her new role at OpenAI, Weng will lead a team working on accelerating internal research. This is part of the company's larger effort to create AI that can improve itself.
An OpenAI spokesperson praised Weng for her research experience, technical expertise, and ability to build teams.
Team changes
Mass exodus from Thinking Machines Lab
Weng's departure from Thinking Machines Lab is the latest in a string of exits. Nearly a third of the company's original founding members have left since its launch.
Of the start-up's six co-founders, only two remain: CEO Mira Murati and chief scientist John Schulman.
Other co-founders Barret Zoph and Luke Metz have joined OpenAI, while Andrew Tulloch has moved to Meta.