Two former OpenAI researchers have joined Thinking Machines Lab, the new artificial intelligence venture launched by ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. Bob McGrew, OpenAI's former chief research officer, and Alec Radford, a key researcher behind the GPT technology, are now advising the startup, as per the company's official website.

McGrew spent seven years at OpenAI, rising to become its top research executive before leaving in September 2024. Radford, who departed OpenAI last year after nearly a decade, was instrumental in developing the company's breakthrough GPT models, as well as the Whisper speech recognition system and the DALL-E image generator.  

Their names quietly appeared on Thinking Machines Lab's website in March, reports news platform TechCrunch. The startup, which Murati leads as CEO, aims to build more customisable and understandable AI systems, as per the company's website. It already employs dozens of researchers from leading AI labs like OpenAI and Google DeepMind.  

Murati left OpenAI in October 2023 after six years, during which she oversaw the development of ChatGPT and other major products. The startup's leadership team also includes OpenAI co-founder John Schulman as chief scientist and former OpenAI model training lead Barret Zoph as CTO.  

Thinking Machines Lab announced in February plans to create tools to help users adapt AI to their specific needs, adds the report by TechCrunch. The company was previously reported to be seeking over $100 million in funding.

Neither McGrew nor Radford have publicly commented on their new advisory roles yet.