Mira Murati, the chief technology officer and a name that had almost become synonymous with OpenAI, recently announced her decision to move on from the company. Murati, who has been associated with OpenAI since its inception, said that she had arrived at the “difficult decision” to move on as the “moment felt right”. “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,” she said in a post on X.
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Sam Altman, acknowledging Murati’s decision, informed that along with her Bob McGrew, chief research officer and Barret Zoph, research VP had also resigned from 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,” said Altman.
He also added that Mark Chen has been named the new SVP or research, would now lead the research organisation in partnership with Jakub Pachuki as chief scientist. In addition to that, Josh Achiam will take on a new role as head of mission alignment, and Matt Knight will be the new chief information security officer. “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,” said Altman.
He also went on to clarify that these changes were normal for a 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.”
