By Reeturaj - Sep 26, 2024
Mira Murati, OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer who played a pivotal role in developing ChatGPT and DALL-E, announced her departure from the company after six-and-a-half years. Her exit adds to a series of executive departures amidst the company's controversial growth strategy shift towards easier fundraising and revenue generation. OpenAI's potential reorganization and plans for a new round of fundraising hint at a shift towards increased returns for investors.
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OpenAI via Wikimedia commons
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OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer, Mira Murati, who played a key role in the development of ChatGPT and the artificial intelligence image generator DALL-E, announced on Wednesday that she is leaving the company. In a note to the OpenAI team, which she posted to X, Murati said, "My six-and-a-half years with the OpenAI team have been an extraordinary privilege. There’s never an ideal time to step away from a place one cherishes, yet this moment feels right."
In 2018, Murati joined OpenAI's leadership team after working at the augmented reality company Ultraleap (then called Leap Motion) and Tesla. With the public release of ChatGPT in 2022, Murati played a key role in leading OpenAI to prominence in Silicon Valley and beyond, sparking an AI arms race in the tech world.
Murati is the latest in a series of executives to depart from OpenAI. The leadership shakeup coincides with the ChatGPT-maker's controversial growth strategy, which involves easier fundraising and revenue generation.
The company, originally established as a non-profit research lab but later developed a for-profit division, is considering a reorganization that may result in increased returns for investors. OpenAI is reportedly in discussions regarding a new round of fundraising that could potentially value the firm at $150 billion, as reported by Bloomberg and other sources.
Murati has left OpenAI, following the departure of OpenAI's chief scientist and co-founder Ilya Sutskever in May, who left to start a new firm dedicated to safer AI. Additionally, co-founder John Schulman exited in August to join rival Anthropic, and OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman is currently on extended leave.
In November of last year, she was temporarily appointed as the interim CEO of OpenAI amid the company's turbulent changes in leadership. This period saw Sam Altman initially removed from his position, only to be reinstated shortly after. Throughout this tumultuous time, Murati, along with over 500 other OpenAI employees, threatened to resign if Altman was not reinstated to the company. Murati said she is leaving OpenAI to "create time and space for my own exploration" but she will assist with the leadership transition.
