OpenAI technology chief Mira Murati is one of the best-known faces in the AI industry. Now she is leaving – allegedly to devote herself to her own research work. Research chief Bob McGrew is also quitting. The ChatGPT developer could be facing a major change.
OpenAI has shaped the development of artificial intelligence with ChatGPT (illustration).
Dado Ruvic / Reuters
The turbulence at ChatGPT inventor Open AI has reached a new high point: After a series of prominent departures, technology chief Mira Murati also announced her resignation on Wednesday. On the X platform, she wrote: “I’m leaving because I want to create time and space to go my own way.” She thanked Open AI and the employees for the six and a half years they spent together. Murati thanked Altman and did not give the impression that there had been a dispute.
I shared the following note with the OpenAI team today. pic.twitter.com/nsZ4khI06P
— Mira Murati (@miramurati) September 25, 2024
It was also announced on Wednesday that the startup wants to give up its previous status as a non-profit company and become a traditional profit-driven company, as several American media outlets report. This would be remarkable because Open AI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit company with the aim of advancing humanity with the help of artificial intelligence without having to be driven by financial constraints. In 2019, the then new CEO Sam Altman added a profit arm to the startup. As part of the restructuring, Altman could now get a seven percent stake in the AI company, wrote the news platform Bloomberg. Altman does not currently hold any shares in Open AI.
Even more managers are leaving
A few hours after Murati, research director Bob McGrew also resigned. A connection between the restructuring and the manager departures was not initially established.
Mira Murati at the Open AI Developer Day in San Francisco on November 6, 2023.
Barbara Ortutey / AP
Murati’s departure is a bitter blow for Open AI. The 35-year-old is one of the top AI scientists in the world and was considered number two at Open AI. Her resignation is part of a series of high-profile departures at the startup: in May, for example, chief researcher Ilya Sutskever, who played a role in Altman’s dismissal, left OpenAI. He has now founded a new startup that aims to develop highly intelligent AI software. Several co-founders of Open AI, including researcher John Schulman, went to competitor Anthropic. President Greg Brockman is on sabbatical until the end of the year.
More attractive for investors
The transformation into a company that is focused on both public welfare and profit could make Open AI more attractive to investors. The new structure would no longer limit how much investors can earn from their investment, the «Wall Street Journal»According to media reports, Open AI is currently trying to get a cash injection of up to 6.5 billion dollars from investors. It would be the largest sum a startup has ever raised from venture capitalists. Several companies such as Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft now want to invest in Open AI.
Murati was briefly appointed head of the startup last November after the board of directors unexpectedly pushed out CEO Altman. The exact reasons for the move are still unknown. A few days later, however, Altman returned after protests from employees and major investor Microsoft. Murati initially supported Altman. Since then, all of Altman’s critics have left Open AI’s board of directors.
