Lilian Weng, a co-founder of Thinking Machines, announced this week that she was stepping down from her role due to health issues. In an internal Slack message, also shared on X, Weng stated that the consistent stress and workload of a startup had become unsustainable for her health.
On Wednesday, OpenAI confirmed that Weng would be rejoining the company. She previously held the position of VP of AI Safety Research at OpenAI. According to a company spokesperson, Weng will now lead a top-level team dedicated to accelerating OpenAI's internal research, supporting cross-research work on recursive self-improvement.
Mira Murati, co-founder of Thinking Machines and former OpenAI CTO, responded to Weng's X post, expressing support for her decision to prioritise her health.