Technology
Former OpenAI executive Barret Zoph joins Google as research vice president
The AI leader returns to Google following brief tenures at Thinking Machines and OpenAI.
The short version
- Barret Zoph has been hired as vice president of research at Google, where he will focus on post-training and reinforcement learning for Gemini.
- Zoph previously co-founded Thinking Machines after leaving OpenAI in late 2024, returned to OpenAI early this year, and departed again in June.
- The move highlights ongoing high-level executive turnover within major artificial intelligence companies.
Key facts
- Barret Zoph has rejoined Google as vice president of research.[TechCrunch]
- A Google spokesperson stated Zoph will apply his post-training and reinforcement learning expertise to the Gemini project.[TechCrunch]
- Zoph co-founded startup Thinking Machines with Mira Murati after leaving OpenAI in October 2024.[TechCrunch]
- Zoph left Thinking Machines in January to return to OpenAI, where he led enterprise AI sales before leaving again in June.[TechCrunch]