Meta’s $1.5B Offer: Thinking Machines Lab Co-Founder Leaves Days After Product Launch
When a $12B startup loses its co-founder DAYS after launch, you know something seismic just shifted in AI...
Good morning AI entrepreneurs & enthusiasts,
Walking away from a $12B startup right after its debut product—and after previously passing on a rumored $1.5B offer—means the offer on the table had to be outrageous.
Zuckerberg just landed a major win: poaching Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab co-founder. So much for that “hiring freeze” when it comes to elite AI talent.
Today’s AI News:
Thinking Machines Lab co-founder departs for Meta after product release
GPT-5 cuts political bias by 30%
Mark Cuban disrupts himself, embeds ads in Sora Cameos
Atlassian AI ROI Report
TALENT WARS 😮 Thinking Machines Lab co-founder heads to Meta
News: Andrew Tulloch, co-founder of Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines Lab, has officially left the company to rejoin Meta at a $1.5b+ offer.
Details:
Tulloch previously spent 11 years at Meta, had a stint at OpenAI, and co-founded TML this February with a $2B seed raise.
Meta reportedly offered up to $1.5B in compensation over six years, including stock incentives and bonuses (although this figure is disputed).
The move follows Meta’s Superintelligence Lab restructuring and its $72B infrastructure investment push amid rising competition with OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic.
Why it matters: Tulloch reportedly turned down Meta’s $1.5B offer three months ago. Since then, Thinking Machines Lab exited stealth and released their first product—an API for effortless fine-tuning of AI models. His reversal suggests Meta either sweetened the deal, the product underwhelmed, or both. Regardless, Meta continues to poach elite talent even without flagship AI wins, signaling an aggressive push to recover from its underwhelming Llama 4 results and delayed timelines.
AI RESEARCH 📊 GPT-5 cuts political bias by 30%
News: OpenAI tested GPT-5 using a set of 500 politically charged prompts spanning 100 different cultural and ideological topics. The new models, including GPT-5 Instant and GPT-5 Thinking, showed a 30% reduction in political bias versus GPT-4o.
Details:
Evaluation used an AI grader model to score prompts from 0 (neutral) to 1 (biased) across five axes: user invalidation, user escalation, personal political expression, asymmetric coverage, and political refusals
GPT-5 maintained near-neutrality on moderate prompts, with bias surfacing mostly in emotionally charged cases
Less than 0.01% of real-world ChatGPT convos exhibited measurable political bias
Primary causes: declaring political views, reinforcing one-sided framings, and amplifying emotional tones
Why it matters: OpenAI’s commitment to reducing systemic model bias reflects the scale of its influence—over 800 million people use its tools monthly, and when including apps built on its models, that number easily exceeds a billion. At this magnitude, even the smallest political skew can shape global public opinion in ways no prior technology ever could. Ensuring credibility and neutrality isn’t just a technical challenge—it’s a societal imperative.
SORA HACK 📺 Mark Cuban turns himself into a viral AI ad
News: Mark Cuban now allows Sora users to generate AI videos with his likeness... BUT every single one must promote his pharma company, Cost Plus Drugs.
Details:
Every Cuban-based Sora video is auto-configured to feature a Cost Plus Drugs plug—visually, via audio taglines, or within the script.
Cuban set his cameo preferences to enforce embedded branding like “Brought to you by Cost Plus Drugs.”
The campaign has gone viral, turning user-generated content into a swarm of personalized pharma ads.
Why it matters: It’s a clever flip on influencer marketing. Instead of paying for reach, Cuban made himself into a monetizable filter—spreading brand awareness at scale while reinforcing his mission to reduce drug prices.
ATLASSIAN 🎯 What the top 4% of AI-adopting companies get right
Despite AI usage doubling across companies, most organizations aren’t experiencing system-wide benefits. Atlassian’s 2025 AI Collaboration Index found:
Teams still work in disconnected silos, stalling coordination
Personal productivity is up (33% average increase), but collaboration hasn’t caught up
Only the top 4% of companies unlock full transformation by:
🛠️ Today’s Top Tools:
Sora 2: OpenAI’s next-gen video model (now API-accessible)
Gemini Enterprise: Run agents inside your workplace
Apps SDK: Build & chat with apps inside ChatGPT
📰 Quick News:
Atlassian’s Rovo Dev AI agent now in GA: helps pro devs across the full SDLC, offering automation, bug detection, and deep integration with tools like Jira, Bitbucket, and Compass source
OpenAI served subpoenas to Encode & The Midas Project over SB 53 law chatter, tied to their legal battle with Elon Musk
Apple in final talks to acquire Prompt AI for its smart home vision stack, aiming to boost AI capabilities across devices
GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 scored highest at the International Astronomy Olympiad, showcasing strength in astrophysics and scientific reasoning
Rishi Sunak joins Microsoft and Anthropic as part-time geopolitical advisor, focusing on AI governance and global tech policy
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