Mira Murati, OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer announced her decision to step down from her CTO position on Thursday, September 26, 2024, after serving more than six years of service.

While announcing her resignation on X (formerly Twitter), she wrote, “After much reflection, I made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI”. In a note shared with OpenAI, Mira Murati mentioned, “I’m stepping away because I want to create time and space to do my own exploration,” she added.

OpenAI

OpenAI is an Artificial Intelligence research Organization founded in December 2015. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California. It aimed to develop safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits humanity. It is known for creating AI models like GPT-4 and other innovative tools.

Who is Mira Murati?

Mira Murati is an Albanian engineer and tech executive. She joined as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of OpenAI from 2018 to 2024. She played a crucial role in developing some of AI’s most notable projects, including ChatGPT, DALL-E, and GPT-4. She has been a strong advocate for the ethical and responsible use of AI technologies.

Murati joined OpenAI in 2017 and also served as its interim CEO during that period. The accomplishment of these developments has propelled the AI research organization to the forefront of the industry, making her one of the most recognized leaders.

Before joining OpenAI, she worked at Tesla as a product Manager for the Model X and at Leap Motion as VP of product and Engineer. In 2022, the Albanian native was appointed as OpenAI CTO and represented the company at various key levels.

What OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said?

The OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman expressed his gratitude for providing her service to the company. In response to Murati’s post, he mentioned, “Mira has been instrumental to OpenAI’s progress and growth for 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 supported her decision. For the past year, she has been building out a strong bench of leaders that will continue our progress”.

Further, he also shared that Bob and Barret have decided to depart OpenAI. “Mira, Bob, and Barret made these decisions individually 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”, he added.

CEO Altman expressed his gratitude to all of them for serving their contributions during their tenure.

Furthermore, he announced that Mark is going to be the new SVP of research. He will now lead the organization in partnership with Jakub as Chief Scientist. Josh Achiam is going to take on a new role as Head of Mission Alignment. Achiam will be working across the company to ensure the progress of their missions. Matt Knight will now serve as the Chief Information Security officer. He had already served the company for a very long time while Kevin and Srinivas will continue to lead the applied team.