Mira Murati, chief technology officer (CTO) of OpenAI, has announced her departure from the company after six years on the job, marking the end of a crucial phase for artificial intelligence within the company. Murati, who playeda key role in the creation of ChatGPT, posted on X (formerly Twitter) a message thanking his team and explaining that he has decided to focus on personal projects. His departure leaves a void at OpenAI, one of the most influential companies in the field of AI.
Murati's impact on OpenAI
Murati joined OpenAI in 2018, after stints at Leap Motion and Tesla. At the time, OpenAI was still a young company, barely three years old. The firm had not yet launched GPT-2, the language model that began to position the company at the center of the AI conversation. In 2019, OpenAI changed its operating structure from a nonprofit to a for-profit subsidiary, enabling its rapid expansion.
During her time at OpenAI, Murati was instrumental in developing key technologies such as ChatGPT, DALL-E and Codex, managing research teams and collaborating on supercomputing strategy. She also served as interim CEO for a brief period last November, following the temporary removal of CEO Sam Altman, before both returned to their original roles. While no details about Murati's future have been disclosed, her influence on the company is undeniable, and her departure marks a significant change in OpenAI's technology direction.
A wave of departures at OpenAI
Murati is not the only prominent figure to leave OpenAI recently. In recent months, several key executives have left the company, including Greg Brockman, chairman of the board of directors, and John Schulman, co-founder and head of AI model alignment, who joined rival Anthropic. In addition, OpenAI lost its chief scientist and co-founder Ilya Sutskever in May, shortly after the unveiling of GPT-4. Murati's departure reinforces the perception that OpenAI is going through a period of significant internal change, while continuing to lead the advancement in artificial intelligence.
