Thinking Machines Lab
Dropbox
Peking University
Indiana University Bloomington
Adrien EcoffetResearch Scientist · OpenAIResearcher↗
Researcher · Founder · Executive
Lilian Weng
OpenAIVP of AI Safety
Weng helped shape the safety systems used to deploy frontier models, contributing to rule-based rewards[1] and GPT-4 safety[2] while leading applied research teams. Her widely read Lil'Log turns complex work on agents, reinforcement learning, and model safety into accessible technical explanations.[3]
Career & education
Current roleOpenAIJul 2026-presentVP of AI Safety
OpenAIJul 2026-presentPreviously
Work and education history is primarily focused on AI-relevant roles and may not be comprehensive.
Citation Trend
Total citations to scholarly work, including research papers, technical reports, books and theses, as recorded by Google Scholar. Each point is a dated snapshot.
citations58,789As of Nov 11, '26
citations+8,997Since last snapshot, Jun 15, '26
Updates 2
MoveLilian Weng returns to OpenAI as VP of AI Safety
The former Thinking Machines Lab co-founder is returning to OpenAI to work on recursive self-improvement research.
July 30, 2026MoveLilian Weng leaves Thinking Machines LabThe co-founder said she was stepping away after concluding that the pace and workload were not sustainable for her health.
July 28, 2026Selected contributions
GPT-4 Technical Report
With OpenAI, Joshua Achiam, Steven Adler, Sandhini Agarwal, Lama Ahmad, Ilge Akkaya, Florencia Leoni Aleman and others ·Reported GPT-4's capabilities, limitations and safety evaluations as a text-and-image input model.
References
- Improving Model Safety Behavior with Rule-Based Rewardsopenai.com
Weng and colleagues explain how OpenAI used explicit rules to reward safer model responses during training.
- Lil’Log: LLM Powered Autonomous Agentslilianweng.github.io
Weng explains how language-model agents use planning, memory and tools.
Based on public sources. If accuracy is important, verify details using the links or references.
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Reviewed August 8, 2026 · Checked for accuracy and new information.
