OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer, Mira Murati, announced her departure from the company on X this Wednesday. After over six years at the forefront of the AI startup, Murati expressed her intention to pursue new opportunities. “After much reflection, I have made the tough decision to leave OpenAI,” she stated. “There’s never a perfect time to move on from a place you hold dear, but this moment feels right … My six-and-a-half years with the OpenAI team have been an immense privilege.”
In response, an OpenAI representative chose not to provide additional comments, instead directing inquiries to Murati's tweet. CEO Sam Altman took a moment to express his gratitude in a follow-up post. “We’ll share more about the transition plans soon, but for now, I just want to express my appreciation,” said Altman. “I’m incredibly grateful for what she has contributed to our mission, and I deeply appreciate her support during the challenging times.”
The announcement comes just a week ahead of OpenAI's annual developer conference, DevDay. Murati briefly assumed the role of interim CEO last year when Altman was abruptly dismissed by the previous board of directors. She was reportedly among those, including ex-chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who expressed concerns regarding Altman’s leadership prior to his ouster.
Altman has been increasingly asserting his influence over OpenAI as the company pursues further growth and visibility. In a recent blog post, he made bold claims, suggesting that OpenAI could achieve “superintelligence” within a few years. Additionally, reports indicate he is on track to receive equity in OpenAI as the company transitions away from a nonprofit governance model.
Murati joined OpenAI in 2018 as Vice President of Applied AI and Partnerships. She was promoted to CTO in 2022 and played a pivotal role in the development of groundbreaking technologies, including the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, the text-to-image AI DALL-E, and Codex, which fuels GitHub's Copilot.
With a degree in mechanical engineering from Dartmouth College, Murati has a diverse background. She interned at Goldman Sachs and worked with Zodiac Aerospace before joining Tesla, where she was a senior product manager for the Model X. During her tenure at Tesla, she contributed to the early versions of Autopilot, Tesla's AI-driven driver-assistance software.
In 2016, Murati took on a leadership role at Leap Motion, a startup focused on hand-tracking sensors. In an interview with Fast Company, she shared her ambition to make computer interaction as intuitive as playing with a ball, but soon realized the technology’s timing was premature.
As CTO of OpenAI, Murati earned a reputation for making bold statements. Notably, she once remarked that OpenAI's AI technology would attain “Ph.D.-level” intelligence. In June, she stirred controversy by suggesting that certain creative jobs could be eliminated because they did not produce high-quality content. “Some creative jobs may eventually go away, but they perhaps shouldn’t have existed at all if the quality of the output is subpar,” she stated during an onstage interview at The Wall Street Journal’s WSJ Tech Live Conference. “I firmly believe that leveraging AI as a tool for education and creativity can enhance our intelligence and imagination.”
Murati's departure marks the latest in a series of high-profile exits from OpenAI, with other significant figures like Ilya Sutskever and former safety leader Jan Leike leaving earlier this year, and co-founder John Schulman announcing his transition to competitor Anthropic just last month. Meanwhile, President Greg Brockman is on extended leave until the year's end.
Murati's exit comes as OpenAI reportedly seeks a funding round that could value the company at over $150 billion. Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, and Thrive Capital are rumored to be in discussions for a potential investment round, which could reach as high as $6.5 billion, according to Bloomberg and other sources.
OpenAI is in urgent need of this funding. The Information cites that the company has invested approximately $7 billion in model training and $1.5 billion on staffing. At one point, the operational costs of ChatGPT alone were estimated at around $700,000 per day, while Altman revealed that training the GPT-4 model exceeded $100 million.
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