Barret Zoph Joins Google DeepMind as VP of Research After Brief OpenAI Return

Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines co-founder who defected to OpenAI, is now at Google

The game of musical chairs for AI executives continues. Barret Zoph, a co-founder of the AI startup Thinking Machines who left the company earlier this year to rejoin OpenAI, has found yet another job. Zoph spent two years at OpenAI and left in October 2024 to co-found Thinking Machines with Mira Murati, who had left the AI lab the month prior. In January, Zoph and another Thinking Machines co-founder, Luke Metz, quite dramatically departed from the startup to return to OpenAI. His return didn't quite stick. Zoph spent only five months at OpenAI, where he was tasked with heading AI enterprise sales. He left the company in June. And now we know where he landed. Zoph has taken a position as vice president of research at Google (which happens to be another company where he previously worked). "We look forward to Barret returning to Google and bringing his RL and post-training expertise to Gemini," a Google spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal. TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI and Google for more information. It's not always easy to divine why tech executives seem to be spending less time in their roles. The turnover rate in the AI industry is high, and it's been especially high at OpenAI -- a company that, despite readying itself for an IPO and being one of the most powerful presences in the tech world, has lost a lot of critical staff over the last eight months. High-level executives -- from the departure of its COO to the recent loss of one of its top data center execs -- has left onlookers scratching their heads.

Google DeepMind: Thinking Machines Lab cofounder Barret Zoph joins Google

Zoph will join Google's DeepMind ⁠as ⁠Vice President of Research after serving as Vice President of Research at OpenAI. Barret Zoph, a co-founder of artificial intelligence startup Thinking Machines Lab, will join Alphabet-owned unit Google DeepMind, Zoph said on Wednesday. Here are some details: Zoph will join Google's DeepMind ⁠as ⁠Vice President of Research after serving as Vice President of Research at OpenAI. Zoph made a brief return to his former employer, OpenAI, after leaving Thinking Machines earlier this year, according to his ⁠LinkedIn profile. The move is the latest in a series of AI-driven ⁠reshuffles at the company, including DeepMind CEO Dennis Hassabis stepping aside this month. Zoph spent six years with Google as a research scientist in Google Brain, which was later merged with DeepMind to form Google DeepMind in 2023. Alphabet's shakeup of the AI lab included a revelation during an ⁠all-hands meeting on August 6 that some teams were moving out of DeepMind and into corporate Google, Reuters reported earlier this month, citing two sources. (Reporting by Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City and Sathvi G Bhat in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)