OpenAI’s CTO Mira Murati quits as executive exodus continues

Mira Murati, the Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI and an important contributor to the AI upsurge has resigned after more than six years at the company. With a groundbreaking portfolio that includes ChatGPT and DALL-E, Murati announced her choice to resign to start her new ventures. With her departure, OpenAI is at a key point as the business deals with a string of executive resignations and works towards raising $6.5 billion in fresh capital.

The recent turmoil at OpenAI is what led to Murati’s departure. Last year, she temporarily accepted the CEO position after the company’s co-founder Sam Altman briefly left in a boardroom takeover. As part of her assignment, she helped the company navigate through some of its most difficult periods, including overseeing relationships with important investors, such as Microsoft, which has poured $13 billion into OpenAI. Despite the unrest, Murati kept directing the evolution of the organization’s AI technologies, which include the recently presented o1 reasoning model and speech-to-speech chat features.

Her resignation is another addition to a growing roster of high-profile separations from OpenAI, which includes co-founder Ilya Sutskever and essential safety team representatives. Within days of the unexpected announcement of her stepping down, the company’s Vice President of Research, Barret Zoph, and the Chief Research Officer, Bob McGrew, resigned on the same day.

In her farewell message, Murati thanked Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman for their support; Brockman is currently away on a leave of absence. She highlighted the recent advancements in AI as “the beginning of a new era in interaction and intelligence” and assured her commitment to a smooth transition during this leadership change.

Murati shared the following memo with OpenAI staff, which she also posted online:

“Hi all,

I have something to share with you. After much reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI.

My six-and-a-half years with the OpenAI team have been an extraordinary privilege. While I’ll express my gratitude to many individuals in the coming days, I want to start by thanking Sam and Greg for their trust in me to lead the technical organization and for their support throughout the years.

There’s never an ideal time to step away from a place one cherishes, yet this moment feels right. Our recent releases of speech-to-speech and OpenAI o1 mark the beginning of a new era in interaction and intelligence—achievements made possible by your ingenuity and craftsmanship. We didn’t merely build smarter models, we fundamentally changed how AI systems learn and reason through complex problems.

We brought safety research from the theoretical realm into practical applications, creating models that are more robust, aligned, and steerable than ever before. Our work has made cutting-edge AI research intuitive and accessible, developing technology that adapts and evolves based on everyone’s input. This success is a testament to our outstanding teamwork, and it is because of your brilliance, your dedication, and your commitment that OpenAI stands at the pinnacle of AI innovation.

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. Together, we’ve pushed the boundaries of scientific understanding in our quest to improve human well-being.

While I may no longer be in the trenches with you, I will still be rooting for you all.

With deep gratitude for the friendships forged, the triumphs achieved, and most importantly, the challenges overcome together.

Mira”

In its critical fundraising phase to reach a staggering $150 billion value, OpenAI hasn’t named Murati’s replacement as Chief Technology Officer. Altman acknowledged Murati’s profound impact on the company, stating, “It’s hard to overstate how much Mira has meant to OpenAI, our mission, and to us all personally.”

As the company gears up for its annual DevDay in San Francisco next week, the leadership shifts cast a gloom over what should be a celebration for the AI giant. The absence of key players has caused questions about OpenAI’s future trajectory and persistent rapid innovation.

(Featured image: Christie Hemm Lokk for Fortune)