As ChatGPT-maker OpenAI works on a restructuring plan to change its status from a non-profit to a for-profit corporation, its top technology executive Mira Murati has resigned along with two other executives. Murati, OpenAI CTO, says she has made the "difficult decision" of leaving the company after six and a half years. "I am stepping away as I want to create the time and space to do my exploration," says Murati, in a memo she sent to employees and later shared on X. She didn't clarify her plans. “For now, my primary focus is doing everything in my power to ensure a smooth transition, maintaining the momentum we’ve built,” she says. She also thanked OpenAI Co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman for their trust and support. Soon after Murati, OpenAI chief research officer Bob McGrew and research vice president Barret Zoph also announced that they were parting ways with the company.
Altman spoke positively of Murati, saying she had been "instrumental" to the company's progress. "Mira has been instrumental to OpenAI’s progress and growth the last 6.5 years; she has been a hugely significant factor in our development from an unknown research lab to an important company." He said Mira, Bob, and Barret made these decisions independently of each other and amicably. "The timing of Mira’s decision was such that it made sense to now do this all at once so that we can work together for a smooth handover to the next generation of leadership." He also said being a leader at OpenAI is all-consuming. "On one hand it’s a privilege to build AGI and be the fastest-growing company that gets to put our advanced research in the hands of hundreds of millions of people. On the other hand, it’s relentless to lead a team through it—and they have gone above and beyond the call of duty for the company."
Notably, the high-profile exits at OpenAI come amid reports that the Altman-led non-profit company is working towards transforming itself into a for-profit one. The company is in talks to raise more funds at a $150 billion valuation, a huge leap from its last round at $80 billion. With fresh cash, the company aims to expand computing power to push the boundaries of AI. Besides Murati, famed researcher Ilya Sutskever, who co-founded OpenAI, also resigned from the company in June 2024 to pursue his project. OpenAI Co-founder Brockman, meanwhile, is also on a "sabbatical". Another co-founder John Schulman resigned in August and later joined Anthropic.
Sutskever has co-founded a new company, Safe Superintelligence Inc, along with two co-founders -- Daniel Gross, an investor and former AI chief at Apple, and Daniel Levy, an AI engineer who was his colleague at OpenAI. It is not following the traditional route of pursuing artificial general intelligence(AGI). Sutskever says it only has one goal and one product: “a safe superintelligence”.
The non-profit board of the company had ousted Altman in November last year for failure to ensure proper communication and lack of trust. Amid a huge controversy, the company's senior leadership including Murati and Sutskever had brought Altman back after five days. Later, the company ousted its board and set up a new 9-member board.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit organisation. However, following fundraising talks with Microsoft, the company added OpenAI LP as a for-profit entity. Microsoft's investment in OpenAI is worth around $13 billion. Since the launch of its first AI model, ChatGPT, in 2022, the company fuelled an unprecedented race to build AI products. ChatGPT currently has around 200 million users worldwide. Experts say the move to a full for-profit status will allow investors to pour money and reap huge profits from the highly valued AI company.
