Lilian Weng
Lilian Weng is an AI researcher and writer best known as the author of the technical blog Lil'Log and for her work at OpenAI, where she held roles including Head of Safety Systems, VP of Research for Safety, and Head of Applied AI Research. She co-founded Thinking Machines Lab, an AI research and product company, but departed the startup in 2026, citing health concerns. She holds a Ph.D. in Complex Systems and Networks from Indiana University Bloomington.
“AI labs are often building such similar products — with an eye toward AGI — that the lines between competition and collaboration can blur.”
Source→“Lilian Weng last month stepped down as a cofounder of Thinking Machines... Then she rejoined OpenAI.”
Source→“Lilian Weng, a co-founder of Thinking Machines, left to rejoin OpenAI.”
Source→“She was rejoining OpenAI to work on recursive self-improvement, the idea that AI systems could play a growing role in improving future generations of AI.”
Source→AI-extracted from podcast / newsletter / paper summaries. May contain errors.