New York — OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mira Murati, a pivotal figure behind the creation of transformative AI technologies such as ChatGPT and Dall-E, has officially announced her decision to leave the company. Murati, who has been with OpenAI for six and a half years, shared her departure in a heartfelt message to the OpenAI team, which she also posted on X (formerly Twitter), stating, “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.”
Murati’s exit signals a significant shift for OpenAI, which is undergoing a period of leadership changes and organizational restructuring. Her departure is part of a broader trend of high-profile exits from the company, as OpenAI continues to grapple with the challenges of balancing its rapid growth with the ethical complexities of developing advanced artificial intelligence technologies. Murati’s role at OpenAI was instrumental, particularly in guiding the development of some of the most cutting-edge AI systems that have reshaped the tech landscape and the global conversation around artificial intelligence.
OpenAI was originally founded in 2015 as a non-profit research lab with the mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. However, in recent years, it has evolved into a more commercially oriented organization, establishing a for-profit arm to attract investor funding and enable greater resources for AI development. This shift in business model has sparked debates about the ethical implications of balancing profit motives with the company’s core mission. As OpenAI continues to restructure, the company is reportedly seeking to raise additional capital, with reports suggesting a potential new fundraising round that could value the firm as high as $150 billion.
Murati’s departure is only the latest in a series of significant exits. In May, OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever left to start a new venture focused on developing safer AI systems. Another co-founder, John Schulman, followed suit in August, leaving to join Anthropic, a rival AI company. Moreover, OpenAI’s president and co-founder Greg Brockman is currently on extended leave, raising further questions about the future of the company’s leadership.
Having joined OpenAI in 2018, Murati brought extensive experience from her time at Tesla and augmented reality company Ultraleap (then called Leap Motion). Her work at OpenAI solidified the company’s status as a leader in the AI space. One of Murati’s most notable achievements was overseeing the development and public release of ChatGPT in 2022. The release of ChatGPT was a watershed moment for both OpenAI and the broader tech world, setting off a race among tech companies to develop and commercialize AI tools that could revolutionize industries ranging from customer service to content creation.
Murati’s leadership was also on display during a particularly tumultuous time for OpenAI last November when CEO Sam Altman was temporarily removed from his position. In the wake of this sudden leadership upheaval, Murati stepped in as interim CEO and, alongside more than 500 OpenAI employees, played a key role in advocating for Altman’s reinstatement. This episode highlighted Murati’s deep commitment to the company and her influence within its leadership ranks.
In her final months at OpenAI, Murati led several significant advancements in AI technology, including the release of GPT-4o, a powerful AI model capable of engaging in human-like spoken conversations through ChatGPT. She also oversaw the preview of OpenAI o1, an advanced AI model designed to solve complex scientific and mathematical problems. Reflecting on these achievements in her farewell note, Murati wrote, “Our recent releases of speech-to-speech and OpenAI o1 mark the beginning of a new era of interaction and intelligence. We didn’t merely build smarter models; we fundamentally changed how AI systems learn and reason through complex problems.”
Though Murati has decided to step away from OpenAI, she made it clear that she plans to remain engaged with the field of AI. She expressed her desire to “create time and space to do [her] own exploration,” while also pledging to assist OpenAI with the leadership transition. The timeline for her formal departure has yet to be clarified, and OpenAI has not announced a successor for the CTO position.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in a message responding to Murati’s announcement, expressed his deep appreciation for her contributions: “It’s hard to overstate how much Mira has meant to OpenAI, our mission, and to us all personally. 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.”
Altman also hinted at forthcoming updates regarding OpenAI’s leadership transition plans, though no specific details have yet been provided. Murati’s departure comes at a critical time for OpenAI as it continues to scale its operations, attract new investment, and navigate the complexities of AI development. As the company looks toward the future, Murati’s legacy will remain deeply intertwined with the technological and cultural impact of OpenAI’s work.
