In a subsequent statement at the Italian Tech Week conference in Turin, as reported by Reuters, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman denied any connection between the executive departures and the company’s restructuring plans. “That’s totally not true,” Altman said, addressing speculation about a link between the two events. He clarified that the board has been considering restructuring for almost a year, independent of recent personnel changes.
For her part, Murati said her decision to leave was driven by a desire to “create the time and space to do my own exploration,” though she didn’t specify her future plans. McGrew stated in an X post, “It is time for me to take a break. There is no better capstone to my work here than shipping o1 to the world.” And Zoph tweeted, “Right now feels like a natural point for me to explore new opportunities outside of OpenAI. This is a personal decision based on how I want to evolve the next phase of my career.”
Proud of safety and research work
Credit: OpenAI
OpenAI CTO Mira Murati seen debuting GPT-4o during OpenAI’s Spring Update livestream on May 13, 2024. Credit: OpenAI
In her departure announcement, Murati highlighted recent developments at OpenAI, including innovations in speech-to-speech technology and the release of OpenAI o1. She cited what she considers the company’s progress in safety research and the development of “more robust, aligned, and steerable” AI models.
Altman replied to Murati’s tweet directly, expressing gratitude for Murati’s contributions and her personal support during challenging times, likely referring to the tumultuous period in November 2023 when the OpenAI board of directors briefly fired Altman from the company.
“It’s hard to overstate how much Mira has meant to OpenAI, our mission, and to us all personally,” he wrote. “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. I am excited for what she’ll do next.”
Not the first major players to leave
With Murati and the others’ exit, Altman remains one of the few long-standing senior leaders at OpenAI, which has seen significant shuffling in its upper ranks recently. In May 2024, former Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever left to form his own company, Safe Superintelligence, Inc. (SSI), focused on building AI systems that far surpass humans in logical capabilities. That came just six months after Sutskever’s involvement in the temporary removal of Altman as CEO.