Athira Sethu
Kochi, 26 September 2024
OpenAI is witnessing a major leadership churn as the company is mulling to shift its business model to for-profit one.
Mira Murati, the ChatGPT maker’s Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI has announced that she’s leaving the firm. She made this announcement on X, where she told people she needed some time for her personal projects.
OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman replied to her post thanking her for her valuable work and input, adding that they will share more about plans soon.
Murati has been with OpenAI since its founding over six years ago and had filled in briefly as CEO in November as an interim stop during a period of change at the top.
As the CTO, Murati regularly appears with Altman in unveiling new technologies.For instance, she appeared at the presentation of OpenAI’s new GPT-4o model, which can carry realistic voice conversations.
Not only Murati, OpenAI’s Research Chief Bob McGrew and Vice President of Research Barret Zoph are stepping down as well. Interestingly, Murati and other two executives are leaving at a time when the company is mulling to change its operating structure.
According to a report in Reuters, OpenAI is planning to restructure its core business into a for-profit corporation. If this happens, it will no longer be controlled by a no profit board. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman will be receiving equity for the first time if the plan goes through, the Reuters report said.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk- Founder of Tesla, criticized OpenAI’s CEO, Altman on these high profile exits, taking a dig at its plan to change into a for profit corporation.
OpenAI has seen several high profile exits in recent months. This month, a co-founder, John Schulman, quit to join an emerging competitor Anthropic, while another co-founder, Greg Brockman, is taking time off. Earlier this year, chief scientist Ilya Sutskever also quit.
