OpenAI CTO Mira Murati says she’s leaving firm to do her ‘own exploration’

In a surprise move, OpenAI’s chief technology officer announced on Wednesday that she would soon leave the company after six and a half years.

In a note shared with the company and then posted to Twitter/X, Mira Murati wrote she was leaving the tech company behind ChatGPT. “After much reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI … I’m stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration,” she said.

CEO Sam Altman offered kind words in response to Murati’s departure, writing on X: “I feel tremendous gratitude towards her for what she has helped us build and accomplish, but I most of all feel personal gratitude towards her for the support and love during all the hard times. I am excited for what she’ll do next.”

Before her announcement, Murati’s departure did not appear imminent. She served as one of OpenAI’s public faces and evangelized its work even in her final weeks, particularly with regards to explaining technical capabilities. She ran demonstrations of its new products during events geared towards software developers and sat for interviews about the company’s work.

In June, she made what seemed like a veiled threat against artists and writers during a conversation at Dartmouth. OpenAI has been sued for allegedly violating writers and newspapers’ copyright.

“Some creative jobs maybe will go away, but maybe they shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” Murati said.

Murati was one of the highest in command at OpenAI, and her departure further thins the ranks of its upper echelon. In November, she took the reins of the prominent startup after its board ousted Altman. In May, OpenAI’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, resigned and expressed concerns over the company’s safeguards against misuse of its AI. Former safety lead Jan Leike left the same month. Co-founder John Schulman left in August for Anthropic, a rival AI startup backed by Amazon. Last week, Sutskever announced the formation of his own startup with $1bn in new investment.

OpenAI is in the midst of seeking new investment that would value it above $100bn. Microsoft has already spent $10bn on OpenAI in exchange for 49% ownership and is likely to lavish more funding on the company. Thrive Capital has announced it will invest $1bn in OpenAI; Nvidia and Apple are reportedly joining the funding round as well. OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022.