Mira Murati quit as the Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI on Wednesday. She’s the latest to join a growing list of high-profile exits from the company. Ms Murati’s decision comes after six years with the artificial intelligence pioneer behind ChatGPT.

In a post on X, Ms Murati described her time at OpenAI as “an extraordinary privilege” and her decision to leave as “difficult.” “There’s never an ideal time to walk away from a place one cherishes, but the moment feels right. I want to create the time and space to do my exploration,” she said.

I shared the following note with the OpenAI team today. pic.twitter.com/nsZ4khI06P

— Mira Murati (@miramurati) September 25, 2024

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded with a touching tribute to X, thanking her for her contributions and conveying his support. “It’s hard to overstate how much Mira has meant to OpenAI, our mission, and to us all personally,” the CEO wrote. “I feel tremendous gratitude towards her for what she has helped us build and accomplish.” 

He said he was “excited for what she’ll do next.”

I replied with this. Mira, thank you for everything.

It’s hard to overstate how much Mira has meant to OpenAI, our mission, and to us all personally.

I feel tremendous gratitude towards her for what she has helped us build and accomplish, but I most of all feel personal…

— Sam Altman (@sama) September 25, 2024

Mira Murati, 35, played a major role in developing ChatGPT and overseeing releases of image generator Dall-E and AI code generator Codex. Her exit comes after her brief tenure as interim CEO following Mr Altman’s ousting last November. 

Sam Altman announced Mark Chen as senior VP of research and Josh Achiam as head of mission alignment to ensure a smooth transition.

Mira Murati’s departure follows those of co-founders Greg Brockman (on extended leave) and John Schulman (joined rival Anthropic), as well as a product team leader and former Meta employee. Earlier this year, co-founder Ilya Sutskever exited OpenAI after a boardroom dispute. Ms Murati’s exit now leaves only two of its 11 founders remaining. 

The shakeup comes as OpenAI releases its new Strawberry AI model, designed to improve “thinking” in generative AI chatbots. The company aims to address “hallucinations” – persuasive but incorrect content – and provide more accurate responses.