Lilian Weng, a co-founder of Thinking Machines Lab, has returned to OpenAI just days after stepping down for health reasons. According to BlockBeats, Weng said she had been repeatedly ill over the past seven months while also dealing with intense startup pressure. She is now set to lead a team at OpenAI focused on recursive self-improvement, a research area she has also explored in recent blog writing and one aimed at using AI to build more powerful systems. Weng previously served as OpenAI’s vice president of safety research and headed its applied AI research team. In early 2025, she co-founded Thinking Machines Lab alongside former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati and others. Her quick move back to OpenAI highlights the continued movement of top AI researchers between high-intensity frontier labs.
Thinking Machines Lab co-founder Lilian Weng has returned to OpenAI just days after resigning for health reasons, according to BlockBeats on July 30.
BlockBeats said Weng stepped down after dealing with repeated illness over the past seven months and heavy startup pressure. She has now rejoined OpenAI, where she will lead a team focused on recursive self-improvement, a line of research she has also examined in depth in a recent blog post. The goal of that work is to use AI to build more powerful systems.
Weng previously served as OpenAI’s vice president of safety research and also led the company’s applied AI research team. In early 2025, she co-founded Thinking Machines Lab with former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati and others.
Her rapid return to OpenAI also points to the continued movement of top AI talent between high-pressure frontier labs.
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