One wave after another, what is happening at OpenAI?
OpenAI has experienced a “seismic” shake-up in its leadership.
Just one day ago, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati posted on X, announcing that after more than six years at OpenAI, she will be leaving the company to pursue her own explorations.
Here is the full text of Mira Murati’s departure letter (in the first person):
I have something to share with you. After much reflection, i have made the diffcult decision to leave
OpenAl.
My six-and-a-half years with the OpenAl team have been an extraordinary privilege. While l’l express
my gratitude to many individuals in the coming days, l want to start by thanking Sam and Greg for their
trust in me to lead the technical organization and for their support throughout the years.
There’s never an ideal time to step away from a place one cherishes, yet this moment feels right. Our
recent releases of speech-to-speech and OpenAl o1 mark the beginning of a new era in interaction and
intelligence – achievements made possible by your ingenuity and craftsmanship. We didn’t merely build
smarter models, we fundamentally changed how Al systems learn and reason through complex problems.
We brought safety research from the theoretical realm into practical applications, creating models that
are more robust, aligned, and steerable than ever before. Our work has made cutting-edge Al research
intuitive and accessible, developing technology that adapts and evolves based on everyone’s input. This
success is a testament to our outstanding teamwork, and it is because of your brilliance, your dedication,
and your commitment that OpenAl stands at the pinnacle of Al innovation.
I’m stepping away because l 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.
will forever be grateful for the opportunity to build and work alongside this remarkable team. Together,
we’ve pushed the boundaries of scientifc understanding in our quest to improve human well-being.
While l may no longer be in the trenches with you, l will still be rooting for you all.
With deep gratitude for the friendships forged, the triumphs achieved, and most importantly, the
challenges overcome together.
OpenAI CEO Altman responded promptly, saying, “Mira, thank you for everything you’ve done. It’s hard to put into words what you mean to OpenAI, our mission, and all of us. I am incredibly grateful for everything you helped us build and achieve, but what I appreciate most is your support and kindness during all the tough times. I look forward to seeing what you do next. We will talk more about the transition plan soon, but for now, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude.”
Sam Altman X Content to OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s Departure
I replied with this. Mira, thank you for everything.
It’s hard to overstate how much Mira has meant to OpenAl, our mission.
and to us all personally.
I feel tremendous gratitude towards her for what she has helped us build
and accomplish, but l most of all feel personal gratitude towards her for
the support and love during all the hard times.l am excited for what
she’ll do next.
We’ll say more about the transition plans soon, but for now, l want to
take a moment to just feel thanks.
OpenAI employees also expressed their reluctance and best wishes for Mira Murati.
The classic four-person group photo has resurfaced, with only Altman remaining (note: Ilya and Mira have left, and Greg Brockman is on a long leave).
Additionally, someone recalled a statement Mira made during Altman’s “dismissal” period: “OpenAI is nothing without its people.”
Of course, various speculations have arisen, with netizens asking, “What did Mira see?”
Some have taken the opportunity to recruit Mira, such as the AI startup “Black Forest Labs,” founded by the popular SD creator.
Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean also wished Mira success in her future endeavors, sparking curiosity about whether Google might hire her.
Mira is the latest executive to leave OpenAI in recent months.
Previously, the most notable departure was that of OpenAI co-founder and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever. At the time, Sutskever stated that after nearly 10 years at OpenAI, he decided to leave. He believed that the trajectory of OpenAI’s development is miraculous and expressed confidence that OpenAI would build safe and beneficial AGI under the leadership of Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Mira Murati, as well as the excellent research leadership of Jakub Pachocki.
Unexpectedly, just a few months later, among the four individuals mentioned in Sutskever’s departure letter, Greg Brockman chose to take a long leave, and Mira Murati announced her departure.
In addition to these figures, Jan Leike, co-leader of the superalignment team, also announced his departure around the same time as Ilya. Ilya and Jan lead OpenAI’s superalignment team, which aims to ensure that AI aligns with its creators’ goals and does not act unpredictably or harm humanity.
Another co-founder, John Schulman, left last month to join competitor Anthropic. During his time at OpenAI, Schulman led the “post-training” process, which involved refining the large language models behind ChatGPT and other products.
Additionally, sources revealed that Peter Deng, who joined the company last year as a product lead, has also left; he previously held product leadership roles at Meta Platforms, Uber, and Airtable.
Another well-known OpenAI co-founder, Andrej Karpathy, left in February this year to start an educational startup.
These sudden departures may not necessarily be related, but they indicate one thing: since the “palace drama” last November, despite Sam Altman’s return and regaining control of OpenAI, the company’s leadership has yet to stabilize.
Introduction to Mira Murati
Mira was born in 1988 in Albania and became OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer in 2022.
During her student years, Mira participated in many Olympiad competitions and math contests. She graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Dartmouth College and interned at Goldman Sachs and Zodiac Aerospace, a French aerospace group. She also worked at Tesla for three years as a senior product manager for the Tesla Model X crossover SUV, during which Tesla released early versions of Autopilot.
In 2016, Mira joined Leap Motion, a startup that produced hand and finger tracking motion sensors for PCs, as Vice President of Product and Engineering. In an interview with Fast Company, Mira expressed her desire for human-computer interactions to be “as intuitive as playing ball.”
After joining OpenAI, Mira played a crucial role in the development of ChatGPT, DALL-E, Codex, and more. Furthermore, the GPT-4o released in May this year and the OpenAI o1 launched this month were both completed under Mira’s leadership.
With Mira’s recent departure, reports indicate that as OpenAI gradually moves away from its long-standing nonprofit structure, Altman will receive ownership stakes in OpenAI for the first time.
It is said that OpenAI is seeking a funding round that would value the company at over $150 billion. Reports indicate that Microsoft, NVIDIA, Apple, and Thrive Capital are in talks to invest, with the total amount for this funding round potentially reaching $6.5 billion.
OpenAI is in urgent need of funds. According to The Information, the company has spent approximately $7 billion on model training and $1.5 billion on staffing. Reportedly, the operational cost for OpenAI’s ChatGPT alone is around $700,000 per day. Altman has stated that training the GPT-4 model cost over $100 million.
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