Mira Murati, former OpenAI chief technology officer, launched on Tuesday: a new AI startup aimed at tackling the alignment problem by encoding human values into artificial intelligence systems.
The company, staffed with roughly 30 leading researchers and engineers, includes about 20 poached from OpenAI, alongside talent from Meta and Mistral. Murati will serve as CEO, leveraging her experience as a key architect of ChatGPT during her tenure at OpenAI from June 2018 until her abrupt exit in September 2024.
The startup’s mission centers on AI alignment: a process to ensure models are safe, reliable, and reflective of human ethics. In a company blog post, Thinking Machines Lab emphasized building systems that "adapt to the full spectrum of human expertise and enable a broader spectrum of applications," distinguishing itself from competitors focused on narrower domains like programming or mathematics. To support this goal, the firm commits to sharing code, datasets, and model specifications with the research community.
Thinking Machines Lab enters a competitive landscape alongside Anthropic and Safe Superintelligence—both founded by ex-OpenAI leaders—but its focus on human-value alignment offers a unique angle. My question about this is simple: since I can't find two human beings whose human values align, whose human values are they going to align their models with?
As always your thoughts and comments are both welcome and encouraged. Just reply to this email. -s
P.S. If you're wondering about the "alignment problem" and how it impacts AI ethics and bias, come join us at MMA CMO AI Transformation Summit (March 18, 2025 | NYC). I'm facilitating and co-producing this half-day invitation-only event which will provide insights into the strategies, technologies, and leadership practices for CMOs who are driving successful AI transformations across the world’s best marketing organizations. .
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named he covers tech and business for , is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular . He's a , and the creator of the popular, free online course, . Follow or visit .
