Thinking Machines Lab cofounder Barret Zoph joins Google

Barret Zoph, a cofounder 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)