The competition for AI talent is intensifying, with a significant reshuffling of top personnel between leading labs. In a major development yesterday, three senior executives departed Mira Murati's Thinking Machines lab under reportedly strained circumstances. OpenAI promptly recruited all three individuals.

This movement appears to be just the beginning. Reports indicate that two additional employees from the same lab are anticipated to join OpenAI within the coming weeks.

The talent flow is not one-directional. Anthropic continues to attract alignment specialists away from OpenAI. A recent report confirms that Andrea Vallone, a senior safety research lead at OpenAI, has moved to Anthropic. Vallone's expertise lies in how AI models address mental health concerns—a particularly sensitive area for OpenAI following its recent challenges with sycophantic AI behavior.

At Anthropic, Vallone will report to alignment researcher Jan Leike. Leike himself departed OpenAI in 2024, citing concerns that the company was not prioritizing safety with sufficient seriousness.

In a final notable hiring move, OpenAI has secured Max Stoiber, previously the director of engineering at Shopify. Stoiber will join what he characterizes as a "small high-agency team" to work on OpenAI's long-rumored operating system project.