The AI lab revolving door spins ever faster
In Brief Posted: 2:04 PM PST · January 15, 2026 Image Credits:Alex Wong / Getty Images Russell Brandom The AI lab revolving door spins ever faster AI labs just can’t get their employees to stay put. Yesterday’s big AI news was the abrupt and seemingly acrimonious departure of three top executives at Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines lab. All three were quickly snapped up by OpenAI, and now it seems they won’t be the last to leave. Alex Heath is reporting that two more employees are expected to leave for OpenAI in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, Anthropic continues to pull alignment researchers away from OpenAI. The Verge is reporting that one of OpenAI’s senior safety research leads, Andrea Vallone, has left the company for Anthropic. Vallone specializes…
