Feb 18 (Reuters) - Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup

founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati,

has tapped about 30 leading researchers and engineers from

competitors such as OpenAI, Meta and Mistral, it said in a blog

post on Tuesday.

The team - roughly two-thirds of which comprises former

OpenAI employees - includes Barret Zoph, a prominent researcher

who left the ChatGPT maker on the same day as Murati in late

September. Zoph will serve as the startup's technology chief.

OpenAI co-founder John Schulman is the startup's chief

scientist. Schulman left OpenAI for rival Anthropic in August,

citing wanting to "focus on AI alignment".

AI alignment refers to a process of encoding human values

into AI models to make them safer and more reliable - a key

focus for Murati's startup.

Murati is among a growing list of former OpenAI executives,

who are responsible for the launch of startups such as Anthropic

and Safe Superintelligence. She is raising funds from venture

capitalists for her new artificial intelligence startup, Reuters

had reported in October.

"While current systems excel at programming and mathematics,

we're building AI that can adapt to the full spectrum of human

expertise and enable a broader spectrum of applications," the

startup said.

The company plans to enable external research on alignment

by sharing code, datasets, and model specifications, it said.

After Murati joined OpenAI in June 2018, she frequently

appeared alongside CEO Sam Altman as the public face of the

ChatGPT maker.

Her abrupt resignation had marked another high-profile exit

from the company as it undergoes major governance structure

changes.

Prior to OpenAI, she had worked at augmented reality startup

Leap Motion and Tesla.