Mira Murati

AI Leader and Innovator

Organization
Thinking Machines Lab

Position
Founder & CEO, Thinking Machines Lab

🇺🇸Albanian-American

Twitter

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Awards1

Publications0

Companies3

Intelligence Briefing

Former CTO of OpenAI who oversaw the launches of ChatGPT, DALL-E, and GPT-4. Left OpenAI in September 2024 and founded Thinking Machines Lab in February 2025, a public benefit corporation building customizable AI models. Raised a staggering $2B seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz at a $12B valuation — one of the largest seed rounds ever. Launched "Tinker," a product for researchers and developers to fine-tune AI models without managing massive compute. Recruited OpenAI co-founder John Schulman as Chief Scientist. Experienced leadership turbulence in January 2026 when CTO Barret Zoph departed and was replaced by Soumith Chintala. Awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from Dartmouth (2024).

Expertise

AI EngineeringProduct DevelopmentAI Model CustomizationAI LeadershipFrontier Lab Leader

Education

BA, Liberal Arts — Colby College

BE, Mechanical Engineering — Dartmouth College (Thayer School of Engineering)

Operational History

2026

Leadership Change

CTO Barret Zoph departed and was replaced by Soumith Chintala.

career

2025

Founded Thinking Machines Lab

Established a public benefit corporation focused on customizable AI models.

founding

2024

Honorary Doctor of Science

Awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from Dartmouth College.

award

2024

CTO of OpenAI

Oversaw the launches of ChatGPT, DALL-E, and GPT-4.

career

2024

Left OpenAI

Departed from OpenAI to pursue new ventures.

departure

AGI Position Assessment

Risk Level

LOW

MODERATE

HIGH

CRITICAL

Predicted AGI Timeline

Unknown

Believes in democratizing AI through customization and understanding. Founded Thinking Machines Lab as a public benefit corporation to make AI systems more widely understood and controllable.

Safety Approach

Believes in democratizing AI through customization and understanding. Founded Thinking Machines Lab as a public benefit corporation to make AI systems more widely understood and controllable.