Andrew Tulloch, Co-Founder of Thinking Machines Lab, Heads to Meta

Thinking Machines Lab, the AI ​​startup led by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, has lost one of its co-founders to Meta.

The Wall Street Journal reports that AI researcher Andrew Tulloch announced his departure to employees in a message Friday. A spokesperson for Thinking Machine Labs confirmed Tulloch’s departure to the WSJ, saying he “decided to take a different path for personal reasons.”

Last August, the WSJ reported that Mark Zuckerberg’s aggressive AI hiring blitz included an offer to acquire Thinking Machines Lab — and when that failed, Zuckerberg allegedly tried to lure Tulloch with a fee that could have been worth as much as $1.5 billion over at least six years. (At the time, a Meta spokesperson said the WSJ’s description of the offer was “inaccurate and ridiculous.”)

Tulloch previously worked at OpenAI and in Facebook’s AI research group.