OpenAI’s chief technology officer, Mira Murati, is leaving the artificial intelligence company, adding to a recent exodus of senior leaders as the company behind ChatGPT seeks a new round of funding from investors.
Murati said in a message shared with OpenAI employees Wednesday and also posted on X that “after much reflection,” she had decided to leave the company after 6½ years. “I’m stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration,” Murati said.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on X that he was grateful for Murati’s service to the company. “It’s hard to overstate how much Mira has meant to OpenAI, our mission, and to us all personally,” Altman said.
A spokesman for OpenAI declined to comment beyond Altman’s statement on X. Reuters reported Wednesday that OpenAI, whose commercial operations are controlled by a nonprofit, is working on a plan to restructure that would create a for-profit benefit corporation independent of the nonprofit board’s control.
Murati’s unexpected departure leaves OpenAI without one of its longest-serving and best-known executives. It comes after OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever left the company in May and started his own AI firm. Another co-founder and key executive, Greg Brockman, is on a leave of absence. Several OpenAI researchers have left the company over the last year, with some alleging the company hadn’t taken its own commitments to AI safety seriously enough.
OpenAI is raising new funding that would value the company at over $100 billion, according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private information.
Murati joined OpenAI in 2018, rising at the company to become its chief technology officer. She was named as interim CEO after OpenAI’s nonprofit board ousted Altman in November but in the firestorm that followed his departure supported his return as chief executive.
Murati was one of the hundreds of OpenAI employees who signed a letter threatening to quit if Altman was not reinstated as CEO. The letter had also been signed by Sutskever, even though he had previously voted in favor of ousting Altman.
Among OpenAI employees, Murati is widely known for her hands-on role and close involvement with development of the company’s core products. Over the last year, Murati’s profile as a spokesperson for the company continued to grow, serving as a key executive giving interviews to the media and appearing in the company’s public demonstrations of its new products.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.