2 founding members of Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab quietly left for Meta (www.businessinsider.com)

Thinking Machines Lab, the ambitious AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, has seen two of its founding members, Christian Gibson and Noah Shpak, depart for Meta, furthering a trend of talent exodus from the company. This follows a larger pattern of poaching within the AI industry, particularly by major players like Meta and OpenAI, as they seek to enhance their capabilities with leading talent. Gibson, a former OpenAI engineer specializing in supercomputing for AI model training, and Shpak, who has experience at Character.AI, have joined Meta, adding to the list of recent high-profile departures that include significant figures like cofounder Andrew Tulloch and CTO Barret Zoph. The continuous loss of key personnel at Thinking Machines Lab raises concerns about its future stability and progress, especially given its $12 billion valuation after a substantial funding round last year. While the startup has demonstrated an ability to attract top-tier talent—including notable hires like Soumith Chintala, the creator of PyTorch—it now faces the challenge of retaining its leadership and expertise in an increasingly competitive landscape. As these shifts occur, both the AI startup ecosystem and larger tech companies like Meta will be watching closely to see how such transitions affect innovation and project momentum within the industry.