Posted on 10/07/2025 1:06:43 PM PDT by libh8er
In today’s column, I examine a newly announced AI product and service named Tinker that is being brought out by Thinking Machines Labs. TML is a startup company that was co-founded by the famed Mira Murati (former CTO at OpenAI). The nascent firm has been widely lauded as a shining star of top-grade AI startups.
Note that Tinker is the first-ever product from TML. Expectations were high. Everyone was excitedly sitting on the edge of their seats. What would this amazing startup put together? Could their first product knock our socks off? Might they reveal some incredible, earth-shattering AI capacity, perhaps something showcasing that AGI is just around the corner?
Though Tinker is undoubtedly useful, providing a handy means to tune LLMs, there is a bit of head-scratching taking place. This is a multi-billion-dollar startup. They have some of the greatest AI developers in the world on their team. Instead of an eye-popping first product, we are greeted with a rather pedestrian capability that is certainly a nice-to-have, but not even close to hitting the ball out of the ballpark. Some are dismayed.
[snip]
The story about TML goes like this. In February 2025, Mira Murati co-founded the company, having left OpenAI, where she had been the CTO and, for a short while, served as the interim CEO during the Sam Altman commotion in November 2023 (see my coverage at the link here). By Spring 2025, TML had established a team of about thirty top-notch AI developers and researchers. Big names. Impressive talent.
The money came next. In June 2025, a seed round raised a whopping $2 billion at a reported $10 billion valuation. The investment process was led by Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), and prominent investors included Nvidia, AMD, Cisco, and others.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
AI is just a New Type of Virus
TNL is a lot of hype.
And matches the hype generated by AI itself.
For anyone not familiar with Mira Murati, she was more qualified to be an OnlyFans model than the ‘Chief Technology Officer’ of a major AI company like OpenAPI (creator of chatGPT). No background in technology or AI, just a basic engineering degree, she was a glorified project manager manging teams of actual AI engineers and scientists but she was given the title of ‘Chief Technology Officer’. The internet is rife with rumors about how she made it into senior roles at tech companies. Long story short, she left OpenAI to start her own AI company ‘Thinking Machines Lab’. What is astounding is how much money she was able to raise (billions) for a startup whose investors had no clue what her company was building but continued to pour money anyway. And at a valuation of 12 BILLION (!!) no less. No product. No clue. But worth 12 Billion. Then along comes the announcement for her first product “Tinker” a complete dud based on what expectations were. And now investors are left scratching their heads.
“AI is just a New Type of Virus”
Not at all.
Maybe not!
Is AI Internet mania #2?
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