Mira Murati, former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at OpenAI is starting a new artificial intelligence (AI) company as per the reports on Saturday. She’s currently raising funds from investors as the startup aims to develop AI products using proprietary models. It’s unclear if she’ll be the CEO as her representative declined to comment to the media.
Murati may raise over $100 million given her reputation and the costs of training AI models. Barret Zoph, a prominent researcher who left OpenAI with Murati might join the venture and it is in its early stages. At OpenAI, Murati led transformative projects like ChatGPT and DALL-E and played a key role in the company’s partnership with Microsoft. Before OpenAI, she worked at Leap Motion and Tesla.
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It was in September, that Mira Murati, the Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI announced her departure from the organisation after six and a half years of service. In a heartfelt message, Murati expressed her gratitude to OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman for their trust and support throughout her tenure. Reflecting on her time with the company, she highlighted the significant advancements made in artificial intelligence (AI) and emphasised the teamwork that led to breakthroughs in areas like speech-to-speech and the OpenAI o1 release.
Murati remarked that her decision to leave was not easy but felt the timing was right, given her recent achievements. “We didn’t merely build smarter models, we fundamentally changed how AI systems learn and reason through complex problems,” she stated, adding that her departure would allow her time for personal exploration while ensuring a smooth transition for the team. Murati joins a growing list of former OpenAI executives starting AI companies including Anthropic and Safe Superintelligence.
I shared the following note with the OpenAI team today. pic.twitter.com/nsZ4khI06P
— Mira Murati (@miramurati) September 25, 2024
Also, read| Mira Murati Leaves As OpenAI CTO