Murati's Thinking Machines releases first AI model for broad use | Fortune

Thinking Machines Lab has released its first broadly usable AI model, Inkling, more than a year after former OpenAI executive Mira Murati founded the startup. The company said the system is designed to be versatile and efficient, processing queries across different media while balancing “cost against performance.” Inkling is open-weight, allowing developers to download and customize the model without access to training data or source code. Thinking Machines said Inkling performs well on multiple benchmarks versus similar open-weight offerings, while noting it is “not the strongest model available today.” Founded last February by Murati and other former OpenAI staff, the firm raised $2 billion at a $12 billion valuation last year and has seen some employees leave for companies including Meta and OpenAI. The article also frames Inkling amid U.S.-China competition for open AI products and notes the model is not being monetized directly, with revenue coming from its Tinker tool for fine-tuning.