OpenAI CTO Mira Murati resigns

OpenAI’s chief technology officer Mira Murati announced Wednesday she has resigned, marking the latest departure from a top executive at the artificial intelligence company.

Murati, in a statement posted to X, said “this moment feels right” to step away from OpenAI after six-and-half-years with the company and touted the ChatGPT maker’s recent advancements in the industry.

“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,” she wrote in a statement to fellow staff. “I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to build and work alongside this remarkable team.”

She thanked Altman and co-founder and President Greg Brockman, who is on a leave of absence through the end of the year.

Her departure follows resignations from OpenAI’s co-founder Ilya Sutskever and machine learning researcher Jan Leike, who both left the company in May, along with co-founder John Schulman, who resigned last month.

Murati was a key figure during the saga of OpenCEO Sam Altman’s brief ouster last November. In the days following Altman’s ouster, Murati appeared to show support for him online while being named interim CEO in the meantime. This only lasted a few days, however, before Altman and Brockman were rehired by OpenAI.

She was reportedly a large player in negotiations with OpenAI’s board to rehire the two tech leaders, according to Bloomberg. 

Murati joined OpenAI in 2018 as its vice president of AI and partnerships before being promoted to senior vice president of research, product, and partnerships in 2020 and CTO in 2022, according to her LinkedIn page. She previously worked at Tesla and computer peripheral startup Leap Motion. 

Murati has repeatedly urged caution about AI and warned last year the advancing technology can become “extremely addictive” without proper design.