Mira Murati on Wednesday resigned as OpenAI’s chief technology officer, the latest to join a growing list of high-profile people exiting the company after six years of working with the artificial intelligence pioneer behind ChatGPT.
In a post on X, Ms Murati described her time at OpenAI as “an extraordinary privilege” and her decision to leave as “difficult”. “There is never an ideal time to walk away from a place you want to cherish, but the moment feels right. I want to create the time and space for my own exploration,” she said.
I shared the following note with the OpenAI team today. pic.twitter.com/nsZ4khI06P
— Mira Murati (@miramurati) September 25, 2024
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman paid an emotional tribute to X, thanking her for her contributions and expressing his support. “It’s hard to overstate how much Mira means to OpenAI, our mission, and to all of us personally,” the CEO wrote. “I am so grateful for everything she has helped us build and accomplish.”
He added that he is “excited about her next step.”
I replied, Mira, thank you for everything.
It’s hard to overstate how important Mira is to OpenAI, to our mission, and to all of us as individuals.
I feel tremendous gratitude to them for what they have helped us build and achieve, but most of all I feel gratitude to them personally…
— Sam Altman (@sama) September 25, 2024
Meera Murati, 35, played a key role in developing ChatGPT and overseeing the release of the image generator Dall-E and the AI code generator Codex. She stepped down after a brief stint as interim CEO following Mr Altman’s ouster last November.
Sam Altman announced the appointments of Mark Chen as Senior Vice President of Research and Josh Achiam as Head of Mission Alignment to ensure a smooth transition.
Mira Murati’s departure follows the departure of co-founders Greg Brockman (on extended leave) and John Schulman (joined rival Anthropic), as well as a product team leader and former Meta employee. Earlier this year, co-founder Ilya Sutskever left OpenAI after a boardroom dispute. Ms Murati’s departure now leaves only two of its 11 founders.
This change comes after OpenAI released its new Strawberry AI model, which is designed to improve “thinking” in generative AI chatbots. The company’s goal is to address “confusion” – persuasive but incorrect content – and provide more accurate responses.
