Here’s Why OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s Exit to Pursue Her Own Path Shocks All

Mira Murati, CTO of OpenAI, is leaving the company after six and a half years to work on personal projects.

OpenAI’s chief technology officer Mira Murati shocked everyone on Wednesday by saying she was leaving the company soon, after six and a half years.

In a note sent to the company and then shared on Twitter/X, Mira Murati said she was quitting ChatGPT and the tech company that hired her. “It was hard to decide, but I’ve decided to leave OpenAI after a lot of thought.” “I’m stepping back because I need time and space to delve into my own things,” she said.

In answer to Murati’s departure, CEO Sam Altman wrote polite words on X: I am so thankful for all the things she has helped us build and achieve, but most of all, I am thankful for the love and support she has given me through all the hard times.

Before she made her statement, it didn’t look like Murati would be leaving soon. She was one of OpenAI’s public faces and pushed its work even in her last weeks, especially when it came to explaining its technical skills. It asked her to show off the company’s new goods at events for software developers and talk about its work in interviews.

During a talk at Dartmouth in June, she said something that sounded like a threat against writers and artists. OpenAI has been sued for supposedly stealing the work of writers and newspapers.

OpenAI’s Future: New Investors and a $100bn Valuation

Many people in OpenAI’s upper echelons have left, including Murati, who was one of the most powerful people there. In November, she took over the well-known company after Altman was fired by the board. Ilya Sutskever, who was chief scientist at OpenAI, quit in May because he was worried about the company’s measures to keep its AI from being hacked. Jan Leike, who used to be the safety lead, quit the same month. John Schulman, one of the founders, left in August to work for Anthropic, a competing AI company backed by Amazon. Sutskever announced last week that he was starting his own business with $1bn in new funding.

When OpenAI gets new investors, it will be worth more than $100bn. Microsoft has already given OpenAI $10bn in exchange for 49% of the company, and it’s set to give the company even more money. Thrive Capital has said it will put $1bn into OpenAI. Nvidia and Apple are also said to be joining the funding round. OpenAI made ChatGPT public in 2022.