Leaders at Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab confronted the startup's co-founder and former CTO, Barret Zoph, last summer about an alleged relationship with another employee, WIRED has learned.
That relationship was likely the alleged “misconduct” highlighted in previous reporting, including by WIRED.
To protect the privacy of the people involved, WIRED does not mention the employee in question by name. The person, who worked in a different department than Zoph and had a managerial role, is no longer in the laboratory.
Murati approached Zoph to discuss the relationship, sources said. According to multiple sources, in the months following that conversation, the co-founders' working relationship dissolved and Zoph began talking to competitors about other opportunities.
Before leaving the company, Zoph was in discussions with leaders at Meta Superintelligence Labs, a source familiar with the matter said. Zoph was eventually hired by OpenAI. OpenAI's CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, said the hire had been in the works for weeks. Simo also noted that she did not share Thinking Machines' concerns about Zoph's ethics.
Zoph and OpenAI declined to comment for this story.
This week, a third Thinking Machines co-founder Luke Metz and at least three other researchers from Murati's startup also left for OpenAI. In October, the startup's co-founder Andrew Tulloch left for Meta.
While tensions between Murati and Zoph have come to a head in recent days, they cannot fully explain the broader exodus of Thinking Machines employees.
WIRED previously reported that there was a misalignment within Thinking Machines about what the startup should build.
In November, Murati's startup was reportedly looking to raise capital at a valuation of $50 billion, up from its current valuation of $12 billion.
Thinking Machines Lab declined to comment for this story.
