Jolene Parish, a researcher at the high-profile artificial intelligence startup Thinking Machines Lab, has left the company to rejoin OpenAI, according to her LinkedIn profile. This marks the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the $12 billion firm, which is led by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati.

Parish had worked at OpenAI for three years before joining Thinking Machines Lab in April last year. Prior to her tenure at OpenAI, she spent a decade working on security at Apple.

String of Departures

Parish's move follows several other employees returning to OpenAI last month. Two co-founders, former CTO Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, both left, along with researcher Sam Schoenholz. Another researcher, Lia Guy, also rejoined OpenAI, according to a report by The Information.

The talent drain extends beyond OpenAI. Another co-founder, Andrew Tulloch, left Thinking Machines Lab for Meta late last year, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Both OpenAI and Thinking Machines Lab declined to comment on the personnel moves.

Startup's High-Profile Status

Thinking Machines Lab, based in San Francisco, raised a $2 billion funding round last year, valuing the company at $12 billion. The startup launched its first product, an AI model named Tinker, in October.

The company has built a reputation for attracting elite talent from across the tech industry. It has quietly hired notable figures including Neal Wu, a programmer who won three gold medals in the International Olympiad in Informatics, and Soumith Chintala, the creator of the open-source AI framework PyTorch at Meta, who now serves as Thinking Machines Lab's CTO.

Context and Competition

The movement of top AI researchers between leading firms and well-funded startups highlights the intense competition for specialised talent in the artificial intelligence sector. Thinking Machines Lab's significant funding and ambitious projects have positioned it as a major player, but it now faces the challenge of retaining its star employees against recruitment efforts from larger, established tech giants.