Recently, there has been heavy news in the field of artificial intelligence: many senior executives of OpenAI have announced their resignation, which has attracted widespread attention in the industry. The editor of Downcodes will explain this personnel change in detail and analyze its possible impact on the future development of OpenAI.
Early this morning, OpenAI's chief technology officer Mira Murati officially announced a big news: she decided to leave OpenAI.
OpenAI CTO announces resignation
Mira has been with the company for six and a half years, and has experienced many ups and downs during this period, even briefly serving as interim CEO after Sam Altman was ousted. In her resignation letter, Mira expressed her gratitude for her past job. She especially thanked Sam and Greg for trusting her to lead the technical team, and said that leaving a place she cherishes is never an easy decision, but this time she felt it was time to explore new possibilities.
Mira mentioned that OpenAI’s recently released speech-to-speech conversion technology and OpenAI O1 mark the beginning of a new era of interaction and intelligence. These achievements are the result of teamwork. Mira pointed out that the team not only built smarter models, but also fundamentally changed the way AI systems learn and reason about complex problems. She was proud of the team's success and highlighted their efforts in security research, taking the field from theory to practical application.
Her main focus will be to ensure a smooth transition for the team before leaving and to maintain existing momentum. Although she will no longer be fighting alongside you all, she will continue to cheer you on and be grateful for the friendships we have made and the challenges we have overcome together.
The chief research officer and vice president of research also left
OpenAI’s senior management has once again experienced big changes and it doesn’t end there.
Just as OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati has also announced her resignation, OpenAI Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and Vice President of Research Barret Zoph also announced their resignation.
Company CEO Sam Altman shared the news on social media and spoke about the upcoming leadership transition plans.
Altman said in the post that Mira, Bob and Barret's departures were independent and amicable decisions. He stressed that Mira's departure was well-timed, choosing to announce all changes at the same time to ensure a smooth transition of leadership.
In the new personnel arrangement, the current vice president of research Mark Chen will be promoted to OpenAI's new senior vice president, leading the company's research department and serving as chief scientist together with Jakub Pachocki. Matt Knight, who was previously responsible for security, will also serve as the company's chief information security officer, while chief product officer Kevin Weil and vice president of engineering Srinivas Narayanan will continue to lead OpenAI's application team, responsible for applying the company's technology to enterprises and consumers.
In addition, research scientist Josh Achiam will serve as the new head of mission alignment, and Altman said he will work to ensure the company's mission is well advanced at every level and culture.
In the post, Altman sought to reassure employees and outsiders, saying the leadership changes were a natural part of the company's rapid growth. He admitted that this change was somewhat sudden, but emphasized that OpenAI is not an ordinary company, so the change is unusual.
McGrew simply stated on social media that it was time to take a break. He said that his journey with OpenAI over the past eight years has left him humbled and amazed, as what was once a small non-profit has grown into one of the most important research and deployment companies in the world. He expressed confidence in OpenAI's leadership.
Zoph mentioned in his departure statement that this period is a natural time to explore new opportunities. The team he is responsible for mainly trains and improves OpenAI's models to ensure their smooth deployment in products such as ChatGPT.
On the day after the personnel changes, OpenAI will hold an all-staff meeting to further explain the company's future development direction.
Highlight:
OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announces her resignation.
Mark Chen has been promoted to the new senior vice president role, responsible for the company's research department and ensuring a smooth transition of leadership.
?OpenAI Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and Vice President of Research Barret Zoph resigned,
The collective resignation of OpenAI executives has triggered a lot of speculation about the company's future development direction. Although this personnel change brings certain uncertainties, it also brings a new leadership team and development opportunities to OpenAI. We will continue to pay attention to the subsequent development of OpenAI.