OpenAI is facing yet another storm. In late 2023, it experienced total chaos when CEO Sam Altman was fired and then hired again. Almost a year later, the company is dealing with a series of events that will shape its future. The most recent of these is Mira Murati’s resignation. She was OpenAI’s CTO and announced that she’s stepping down “to create time and space to do my own exploration.” Was that the only reason, though?
Gone, but not yet. Although Murati is leaving her position, it’s not happening immediately. Wired reports that, according to sources close to the situation, no specific departure date has been set, and “conversations are ongoing between her and OpenAI’s leadership to ensure a smooth transition.”
In October 2023, Wired featured the big four "AI overlords" on its cover in a story about OpenAI. Ilya Sutskever (first from the left) resigned, Mira Murati has recently resigned, and Greg Brockman (second from the left) is on leave.
Very weird. Wired editor Katie Drumm said on Threads that this may suggest two things. First, as Altman said, the resignation has indeed been very amicable between the two sides. The second is that it hasn’t been at all, something that would make sense considering that Murati has used her own X account to announce her decision.
Total disbandment. The chaotic events of November 2023 had seismic consequences in the following months. Founders and managers gradually left OpenAI, from Ilya Sutskever, who ended up creating his own startup, to Murati. It’s particularly striking that the original team disintegrated in this way.
Disagreements. During the first crisis in 2023, there was talk of clashes between Altman and the top management, with Sutskever supporting Altman’s dismissal. Altman has always wanted to launch and market OpenAI’s AI models immediately, leaving the safety of those models on the back burner. However, many of his colleagues didn’t have that same vision and preferred to resign.
Superalignment. One example is Jan Leike, the head of the “superalignment” team. That initiative advocated the development of secure AI, but Altman didn’t seem to have much regard for that approach. Leike eventually left, making it clear that he had “been disagreeing with OpenAI’s leadership” for a long time. He ended up joining Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s biggest rivals.
Is the funding round in jeopardy? There’s been a lot of talk recently about the massive investment round OpenAI is preparing to launch. Murati’s resignation comes at a particularly delicate moment and raises new doubts about a company that’s spending money quickly and needs more funding as soon as possible.
Resignations, money, and secrets. OpenAI hasn’t disclosed the economic details of the recent departures. However, in May 2024, Vox reported that former OpenAI employees can’t discuss the company publicly if they want to keep their shares. According to the report, those who leave the company are confronted with “highly restrictive exit documents.”
Altman denied the rumors, but Vox had access to the information in question and stood by its reporting. These “amicable” resignations appear to be so only in the public eye. Those affected probably have to keep their real motivation secret in order not to lose a significant amount of money.
Image | Mira Murati | TechCrunch
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