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Mira Murati, the Chief Technology Officer at OpenAI, has announced her departure from the company after more than six years of service. In a memo addressed to employees and shared on the social media platform X, Murati expressed her intention to step down to "create the time and space to do my own exploration." While she did not specify her future plans, she emphasized her commitment to ensuring a smooth transition during this period.

Murati's resignation marks the latest in a sequence of prominent exits from OpenAI, which has experienced a turbulent year, including the abrupt ouster and subsequent reinstatement of co-founder and CEO Sam Altman. Murati was briefly appointed to lead the company during this upheaval but declined the position just two days later. Despite this, she has continued to be a prominent public face for OpenAI, frequently discussing the company’s advancements in artificial intelligence technology.

In response to Murati's announcement, Sam Altman replied on X, expressing his gratitude for her contributions and stating that more details about the leadership transition would be forthcoming. "It's hard to overstate how much Mira has meant to OpenAI, our mission, and to us all personally," he wrote.

OpenAI has been navigating a period of significant change and growth, more than doubling its workforce to over 1,700 employees in the past nine months. The start-up is also engaged in talks with major tech companies like Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple for a new funding round projected to potentially value the company at up to $150 billion, a substantial increase from its previous $80 billion valuation.

Despite the influx of new executives and significant developments in its technology, OpenAI has seen a notable number of longtime managers and researchers leave. Of the 13 original founders who started the organization in 2015 with the aim of creating artificial general intelligence, only three remain. Greg Brockman, one of the remaining founders and the company's president, has also announced a leave of absence until the end of the year, citing the need for rest after nearly a decade of work.