- By Shivangi Sharma
- Thu, 26 Sep 2024 03:05 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer, Mira Murati, announced on Thursday that she is leaving the company to "create time and space" for her own exploration. Alongside her departure, CEO Sam Altman revealed that Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and research leader Barret Zoph are also exiting.
Murati significantly contributed to the development of ChatGPT and oversaw the launches of Dall-E and Codex. Her departure follows a brief stint as interim CEO after Altman’s ousting last November.
Mira Murati announced on X that she has decided to leave the company after careful consideration. She stated, “I’m stepping away to create time and space for my own exploration. My main priority now is to ensure a smooth transition and maintain our momentum.”
I shared the following note with the OpenAI team today. pic.twitter.com/nsZ4khI06P
— Mira Murati (@miramurati) September 25, 2024
Altman expressed his gratitude towards Murati for her contributions and noted that leadership changes are a normal part of a rapidly growing organization, promising to share transition plans soon.
I replied with this. Mira, thank you for everything.
— Sam Altman (@sama) September 25, 2024
It’s hard to overstate how much Mira has meant to OpenAI, our mission, and to us all personally.
I feel tremendous gratitude towards her for what she has helped us build and accomplish, but I most of all feel personal…
To facilitate a smooth transition, Altman announced Mark Chen as Senior VP of Research and Josh Achiam as Head of Mission Alignment. Murati’s exit is part of a broader executive turnover at OpenAI, which is navigating a controversial growth strategy involving easier fundraising and revenue generation.
Who Is Mira Murati?
Murati, born on December 16, 1988, in Vlorë, Albania, excelled in Olympiads and math competitions during her school years. At 16, Murati won a scholarship to the Pearson United World College of the Pacific in Canada, graduating in 2005. She then pursued a dual-degree program in the US, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Colby College in 2011 and a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Dartmouth College in 2012.
Before joining OpenAI, she briefly worked at Zodiac Aerospace and served as a product manager for Tesla’s Model X starting in 2013. From 2016 until her arrival at OpenAI in 2018, she worked at the augmented reality startup Leap Motion (now Ultraleap).
Joining OpenAI's leadership team in 2018, Murati played a key role in its rise to prominence following the public release of ChatGPT in 2022, which sparked an AI arms race in the tech industry.