Barret Zoph is out at OpenAI again after just five months
Barret Zoph is out at OpenAI again after just five months
Barret Zoph 在重返 OpenAI 仅五个月后再次离职
Five months after returning to OpenAI, Barret Zoph — the company’s head of enterprise AI sales — has departed, The Verge has learned. 据《The Verge》获悉，在重返 OpenAI 五个月后，该公司企业 AI 销售负责人 Barret Zoph 已经离职。
Zoph returned to OpenAI in mid-January after a stint as co-founder and CTO of Thinking Machines Lab, the competing AI company founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. Shortly after Zoph returned to OpenAI, the company said he would lead its push into enterprise — a significant role at OpenAI, since in recent months it had vowed to stop chasing so-called “side quests” and focus on key revenue drivers like enterprise and coding ahead of its planned IPO. Zoph 此前曾担任 Thinking Machines Lab 的联合创始人兼 CTO，这是一家由 OpenAI 前首席技术官 Mira Murati 创立的竞争对手公司。他在今年 1 月中旬重返 OpenAI。Zoph 回归后，公司宣布由他负责推动企业业务——这在 OpenAI 内部是一个关键角色，因为该公司近几个月来已承诺停止追求所谓的“副业”，转而专注于企业服务和编程等核心创收业务，为即将到来的 IPO 做准备。
OpenAI confirmed to The Verge that Zoph will be departing. He posted a goodbye message in the company’s Slack channels. Zoph did not immediately respond to a request for comment. OpenAI 向《The Verge》证实了 Zoph 即将离职的消息。他在公司的 Slack 频道中发布了告别信息。Zoph 目前尚未回应置评请求。
Zoph originally left OpenAI in the fall of 2024 for Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab, but departed the role abruptly in January 2026 after reports of alleged misconduct involving an undisclosed relationship with a colleague. Murati posted on X in January that Thinking Machines Lab had “parted ways” with Zoph and that he would be replaced as CTO. Zoph 最初于 2024 年秋季离开 OpenAI 加入 Murati 的 Thinking Machines Lab，但在 2026 年 1 月，因有报道称其涉及与同事未公开关系的违规行为，他突然离职。Murati 当时在 X 上发文称，Thinking Machines Lab 已与 Zoph“分道扬镳”，并将任命新的 CTO 接替他。
Thinking Machines Lab has its own tensions with OpenAI. Murati briefly took over as CEO from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during his November 2023 ouster, and during the recent OpenAI trial, Murati testified that she couldn’t trust everything Altman said. In September 2024, when Murati left OpenAI to start Thinking Machines Lab, a group of OpenAI employees followed shortly after. But three of them — including Zoph — all returned to OpenAI together this past January. Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, wrote on X at the time that she was “excited to welcome Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz back” and that the decision had “been in the works for several weeks.” Thinking Machines Lab 与 OpenAI 之间一直存在紧张关系。在 2023 年 11 月 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman 被短暂罢免期间，Murati 曾接任 CEO 一职；在最近的 OpenAI 审判中，Murati 作证称她无法信任 Altman 所说的一切。2024 年 9 月，当 Murati 离开 OpenAI 创办 Thinking Machines Lab 时，一批 OpenAI 员工紧随其后。但其中三人——包括 Zoph——在今年 1 月一同回到了 OpenAI。OpenAI 应用部门 CEO Fidji Simo 当时在 X 上发文表示，她“很高兴欢迎 Barret Zoph、Luke Metz 和 Sam Schoenholz 回归”，并称这一决定“已经筹备了数周”。