In another leadership shakeup at OpenAI, the startup’s chief technology officer Mira Murati said she was leaving the company after a six-and-a-half-year tenure.
“After much reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI,” Murati wrote in a statement shared on X. “There’s never an ideal time to step away from a place one cherishes, yet this moment feels right.”
The departure follows reports that OpenAI is considering restructuring itself into a for-profit business, giving CEO Sam Altman equity in the company for the first time, and removing its profit cap on investors. Those changes are related to a reported $6.5 billion funding round that could value the company at around $150 billion.
Shortly after Murati’s announcement, chief research officer Bob McGrew and VP of post-training research Barret Zoph said they were leaving the company.
The departures add to a string of high-profile exits at the startup. OpenAI’s co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever left the company in May and recently launched Safe Superintelligence, an AI safety startup with $1 billion in funding. Co-founder John Schulman left to join competitor Anthropic in August. In early September Alexis Conneau, one of the research heads on ChatGPT 4-o’s audio product, departed to launch his own startup.
Nearly a year ago, Murati was appointed interim CEO following the abrupt ouster of Altman. When he returned, Murati returned to her previous role and became a more public face of the company, heading up product announcements and attending press summits.
Murati’s exit follows the recent release of OpenAI’s o1 model, which features advanced reasoning capabilities.
In her statement, Murati did not disclose her plans. Replying to Murati’s post on X, Altman wrote:
“I feel tremendous gratitude towards her for what she has helped us build and accomplish... I am excited for what she’ll do next.”
Rosie Bradbury contributed reporting to this story
Update: This article has been updated to reflect the departures of Bob McGrew and Barret Zoph. (Sept. 26, 2024)
Featured image of outgoing CTO Mira Murati by OpenAI via YouTube
