Last Friday we published the news of Sam Altman’s departure from the role of CEO of OpenAI, a company that was the first ever – just over a year ago – to show the world and deliver the power of generative models into the hands of users. Temporarily taking Altman’s place is Mira Muratidesignated new CEO ad interim.
The board of directors of OpenAI he fired Altman because the former number one of the company would not have been completely sincere and transparent in communications with members of the management, thus hindering the decisions of the latter. The news of the decision made on Altman remained secret until the last minute: Microsoft itself, one of the main investors in OpenAI, received the communication shortly after the publication of an official note.
Who is Mira Murati, CEO of OpenAI for two days
After Altman’s dismissal, Mira Murati took the reins of the company. Born in Albania in 1988, Murati has long held the role of CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in OpenAI.
Having joined the company in 2018, she is considered one of the “minds” behind the launch and success of Chatbot, directly involved in the development of the chatbot. As CTO of OpenAI, Murati has appeared on the scene several times, especially over the last year. We remember her interventions focused on the opportunities ofartificial intelligence and its potential, both positive and negative.
OpenAI’s CTO has also repeatedly argued for the need for one regulation of artificial intelligence applications. “It is important that OpenAI and companies like ours bring this aspect to the public opinion,” Murati pointed out to the magazine Time at the beginning of 2023.”But we are a small group of people and we need much more input, support that goes well beyond technological support“.
Studies in Canada and experience at Tesla
At 16 Murati moved to Canada to attend Pearson College UWC. She graduated in 2012 from Dartmouth with a degree in mechanical engineering and interned at Goldman Sachs, one of the largest investment banks in the world.
After gaining “field experience” at a French aerospace company, Murati spent 3 years in Tesla as senior product manager, also contributing to the development of the Model of disagreements with company top management.
After leaving Tesla, Murati worked for Leap Motion, a San Francisco startup that designs and manufactures motion detection technologies in the interaction between humans and computers (primarily virtual reality). At Leap Motion, Murati served as vice president of product and engineering.
Mira Murati CEO OpenAI for the blink of an eye: she is immediately succeeded by Emmett Shear
We were saying that Murati was immediately designated CEO ad interim of OpenAI after the board of directors kicked out former number one Sam Altman on Friday.
However, she will not be the one to retain the position of CEO. Murati will in fact be replaced by Emmett Shear, former CEO of Twitch, who will take the helm of OpenAI. All attempts over the last weekend to bring Altman back to the top, who has the merit of having brought ChatGPT, OpenAI’s generative models and his business scheme to success, therefore proved in vain.
Murati, in his comments on Friday, reiterated that OpenAI is at a crucial moment in its existence. Its tools are widely adopted, developers are using them to create new platforms, and lawmakers are working on effective regulations for the future.
Microsoft founds a new artificial intelligence research and development team by bringing together Altman and other former OpenAI players
At this point, however, the continuation of the relationship with OpenAI may no longer be a given. In an update to the note published by Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, it is confirmed that the new CEO of OpenAI is Shear and that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman (former president of the company), together with their colleagues, will join Microsoft to lead a new research team onadvanced artificial intelligence. “We look forward to acting quickly to provide them with the resources necessary for their success“, writes Nadella who – according to sources close to Microsoft – was literally furious at the sudden departure of Altman and Brockman.
The CEO of Microsoft does not specifically mention Murati, who could therefore move to Microsoft, included in that expression “together with colleagues” which appears in the Redmond company’s position statement.
What is certain is that Microsoft really needs a solid and reliable team to continue developing the foundations of Copilot and similar solutions. Until now, the company relied directly on the resources made available by OpenAI. The note signed by Nadella, however, confirms the desire to also act autonomously by developing a dedicated team, committed to creating new AI solutions and advancing existing ones.
The opening image is taken from the Microsoft site.
