Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, announced her resignation in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “After much reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave OpenAl,” she wrote in a note that she shared with OpenAI. “I’m stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration,” she added. Murati joined OpenAI in 2017.She also served a few days as its interim CEO during a period of turmoil last year.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman replied to Murati’s post, expressing his gratitude for her service to the company. He said that OpenAI would provide more information on the leadership transition in the coming days.
Here’s what Mira Murti said
Hi all,
I have something to share with you. After much reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave OpenAl. My six-and-a-half years with the OpenAl team have been an extraordinary privilege. While I’ll express my gratitude to many individuals in the coming days, I want to start by thanking Sam and Greg for their trust in me to lead the technical organization and for their support throughout the years. There’s never an ideal time to step away from a place one cherishes, yet this moment feels right. Our recent releases of speech-to-speech and OpenAl 01 mark the beginning of a new era in interaction and intelligence – achievements made possible by your ingenuity and craftsmanship. We didn’t merely build smarter models, we fundamentally changed how Al systems learn and reason through complex problems. We brought safety research from the theoretical realm into practical applications, creating models that are more robust, aligned, and steerable than ever before. Our work has made cutting-edge Al research intuitive and accessible, developing technology that adapts and evolves based on everyone’s input. This success is a testament to our outstanding teamwork, and it is because of your brilliance, your dedication, and your commitment that OpenAl stands at the pinnacle of AI innovation. I’m stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration. For now, my primary focus is doing everything in my power to ensure a smooth transition, maintaining the momentum we’ve built.
I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to build and work alongside this remarkable team. Together, we’ve pushed the boundaries of scientific understanding in our quest to improve human well-being. While I may no longer be in the trenches with you, I will still be rooting for you all. With deep gratitude for the friendships forged, the triumphs achieved, and most importantly, the challenges overcome together.
Mira
What OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said
Hi All
Mira has been instrumental to OpenAI’s progress and growth the last 6.5 years; she has been a hugely significant factor in our development from an unknown research lab to an important company.
When Mira informed me this morning that she was leaving, I was saddened but of course support her decision. For the past year, she has been building out a strong bench of leaders that will continue our progress.
I also want to share that Bob and Barret have decided to depart OpenAI. Mira, Bob, and Barret made these decisions independently of each other and amicably, but the timing of Mira’s decision was such that it made sense to now do this all at once, so that we can work together for a smooth handover to the next generation of leadership.
I am extremely grateful to all of them for their contributions.
Being a leader at OpenAI is all-consuming. On one hand it’s a privilege to build AGI and be the fastest-growing company that gets to put our advanced research in the hands of hundreds of millions of people. On the other hand it’s relentless to lead a team through it—and they have gone above and beyond the call of duty for the company.
Mark is going to be our new SVP of Research and will now lead the research org in partnership with Jakub as Chief Scientist. This has been our long-term succession plan for Bob someday; although it’s happening sooner than we thought, I couldn’t be more excited that Mark is stepping into the role. Mark obviously has deep technical expertise, but he has also learned how to be a leader and manager in a very impressive way over the past few years.
Josh Achiam is going to take on a new role as Head of Mission Alignment, working across the company to ensure that we get all pieces (and culture) right to be in a place to succeed at the mission.
Kevin and Srinivas will continue to lead the Applied team.
Matt Knight will be our Chief Information Security Officer having already served in this capacity for a long time. This has been our plan for quite some time.
Mark, Jakub, Kevin, Srinivas, Matt, and Josh will report to me. I have over the past year or so spent most of my time on the non-technical parts of our organization; I am now looking forward to spending most of my time on the technical and product parts of the company.
…
Leadership changes are a natural part of companies, especially companies that grow so quickly and are so demanding. I obviously won’t pretend it’s natural for this one to be so abrupt, but we are not a normal company, and I think the reasons Mira explained to me (there is never a good time, anything not abrupt would have leaked, and she wanted to do this while OpenAI was in an upswing) make sense. We can both talk about this more tomorrow during all-hands.
Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication.
Sam
#OpenAIs #CTO #Mira #Murati #resigns #Read #CEO #Sam #Altman #Times #India
