Who Is Mira Murati: The Newly Appointed Interim CEO of OpenAI

Following the board's decision on Friday to remove CEO and co-founder Sam Altman, Mira Murati has taken on the role of interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at OpenAI.

OpenAI, the driving force behind ChatGPT, has selected Mira Murati as the new interim CEO. This announcement comes after the removal of CEO and co-founder Sam Altman. Murati joined OpenAI's team in 2018.

Born in 1988 in Vlorë, Albania, to Albanian parents, Murati left Albania at 16 to enroll at Pearson College UWC on Vancouver Island, Canada. She completed her academic journey with an International Baccalaureate diploma in 2007.

For her undergraduate studies, Murati attended Colby College in Waterville, Maine, on a Davis-UWC Scholarship. She participated in the institution’s five-year, dual-degree initiative in engineering with Dartmouth College, concluding her studies in 2012 with a Bachelor of Engineering in mechanical engineering from Dartmouth and a Bachelor of Arts from Colby.

Murati's professional journey began with an internship at Goldman Sachs in 2011, followed by a tenure at Zodiac Aerospace from 2012 to 2013. She then worked at Tesla as a senior product manager for Model X before transitioning to Leap Motion.

In 2018, Murati joined OpenAI, rising to the position of chief technology officer. In this role, she led the company’s efforts on projects like ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Codex, while overseeing the research, product, and safety teams.

On November 17, 2023, Murati assumed the role of interim CEO at OpenAI, filling the void left by Sam Altman's sudden departure. She is renowned for her pivotal role in ChatGPT's development and her advocacy for the ethical considerations of artificial intelligence. Murati strongly supports AI regulation, emphasizing that governments should play a more prominent role in establishing "basic safety standards for deployment of these models." This aligns with OpenAI’s commitment to conscientious innovation and ethical AI practices.

In a memo to the staff, reviewed by Bloomberg, Murati expressed feeling "honored and humbled" to take on the leadership role. She highlighted the current pivotal phase in AI adoption marked by widespread tool utilization, active development, and ongoing deliberations by policymakers on effective regulation.

During a company meeting on Friday, Murati informed OpenAI employees that Satya Nadella and Kevin Scott, CEO and CTO of Microsoft and major supporters of OpenAI, have "utmost confidence" in the direction of OpenAI, as reported by The Information.

She emphasized OpenAI's quest for a new CEO. Established in 2015 as an AI research and deployment entity, OpenAI underwent restructuring in 2019 to enhance its capacity to secure capital while preserving the nonprofit’s mission, governance, and oversight.