Who is Mira Murati? OpenAI's new CEO who's worked with Elon Musk before

OpenAI, one of the pioneers in the field of generative artificial intelligence (AI), has parted ways with its long-standing chief executive officer, Sam Altman, After firing him late Friday, the Microsoft-backed firm appointed its chief technology officer, Mira Murati, as the interim CEO. She has been working with OpenAI for about five years and brings an immaculate track record in the industry. She has been a part of the core team behind the development of ChatGPT, which gives her an upper hand as a candidate for the next CEO. However, OpenAI is not confident enough to make Murati the permanent chief executive. Here is everything you must know about Mira Murati:

Everything about Mira Murati

Mira Murati, the current Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at ChatGPT developer OpenAI, has been appointed as an interim CEO after the dismissal of Sam Altman. But perhaps, she will not rock the boat as the company’s board of directors searches for a permanent CEO. OpenAI has not said anything about its decision to put Murati in a temporary role for now, post the firing of Sam Altman.

Born in Southeastern Europe’s Albania, Murati has a degree in mechanical engineering from Dartmouth College. She has previously worked as an intern at Goldman Sachs and the French aerospace group Zodiac Aerospace. In 2013, Murati joined Tesla where she worked with Elon Musk as a senior product manager of the Model X. In 2016, Murati joined Leap Motion, a startup building hand- and finger-tracking motion sensors for PCs, as VP of product and engineering, reports TechCrunch.

In 2018, she came to OpenAI as VP of applied AI and partnerships. After being promoted to CTO in 2022, she led the work on ChatGPT, the text-to-image AI DALL-E and the code-generating system Codex, which powers GitHub’s Copilot product.

A member of OpenAI’s leadership team for five years, Murati has played a critical role in OpenAI’s evolution into a global AI leader. She brings a unique skill set, and understanding of the company’s values, operations, and business, and already leads the company’s research, product, and safety functions, said the company.

“Given her long tenure and close engagement with all aspects of the company, including her experience in AI governance and policy, the board believes she is uniquely qualified for the role and anticipates a seamless transition while it conducts a formal search for a permanent CEO,” said OpenAI.

— Written with inputs from IANS