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Jerry Tworek

Jerry Tworek is an artificial intelligence researcher who worked at OpenAI for about seven years, served as its vice president of research, and took part in research on Codex and reasoning models such as o1. After leaving OpenAI in early 2026, he founded the AI lab Core Automation.

Contents9 sections
Key facts

Joins OpenAI

According to Business Today, Tworek joined OpenAI in 2019. He is listed among the authors of a paper on solving a Rubik’s Cube with a robot hand, submitted to arXiv in October of that year.⁠[1][2]

The Codex Paper

In July 2021, the paper “Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Code,” which introduced the code language model Codex, was submitted to arXiv, with Tworek as second author. Business Today said he led the Codex research, which later became the foundation of GitHub Copilot.⁠[3][1]

Becomes Vice President of Research

According to Business Today, he became OpenAI’s vice president of research in 2022. The Decoder described him as a key contributor to building GPT-4, ChatGPT, and OpenAI’s first coding models.⁠[1][4]

The o1 Reasoning Model

OpenAI released o1-preview on September 12, 2024. In OpenAI’s published list of o1 contributors, Tworek is listed in the leadership group of “Foundational Contributors,” marked “overall.” The Decoder reported that he was part of the core group behind the o1 and o3 models and, before leaving, led the “Reasoning Models” team.⁠[5][6][4]

Leaves OpenAI

In early January 2026, multiple outlets reported that Tworek was leaving OpenAI after nearly seven years. According to the reports, he said he was leaving to explore types of research that are hard to do at OpenAI.⁠[4][1]

Launches Core Automation

In April 2026, The Decoder reported that Tworek had launched a new AI lab, Core Automation, whose research directions include new learning algorithms beyond pre-training and reinforcement learning and architectures that scale better than transformers. The company’s website says its goal is to build the “most automated AI lab,” starting by automating research itself.⁠[7][8]

Funding Report

Related Organizations, Websites, and Public Accounts

Core Automation: Official website: https://www.coreauto.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[8]

Core Automation: Official account: https://x.com/coreauto (opens in a new window)⁠[8]

Sources

  1. OpenAI reasoning chief Jerry Tworek quits after 7 years: Here’s why (opens in a new window)
  2. Solving Rubik's Cube with a Robot Hand (opens in a new window)
  3. Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Code (opens in a new window)
  4. OpenAI loses top AI researcher Jerry Tworek after seven years (opens in a new window)
  5. Introducing OpenAI o1 (opens in a new window)
  6. OpenAI o1 Contributions (opens in a new window)
  7. Ex-OpenAI researcher Jerry Tworek launches Core Automation to build the most automated AI lab in the world (opens in a new window)
  8. Core Automation (opens in a new window)
  9. Core Automation raising $500 million (opens in a new window)