OpenAI’s chief research officer has left following CTO Mira Murati’s exit

OpenAI's chief scientist Bob McGrew and vice president of research Barrett Zoff left the company on Wednesday, hours after OpenAI's chief technology officer Mira Murati announced her departure.

CEO Sam Altman announced the two latest resignations from X's roles on Wednesday night, as well as plans for a leadership transition. “Mira, Bob and Barrett made these decisions independently and by mutual consent,” he said, “but the timing of Mira’s decision was such that it made sense to make it now and immediately so that we can work together to have a smooth transition.” empowering the next generation of leaders.

Vice President of Research Mark Chen is being promoted to OpenAI’s new senior vice president of research and will lead the company’s research organization in partnership with Jakub Paczocki as chief scientist, Altman said.

Matt Knight, formerly chief security officer, will become OpenAI’s chief information security officer. Additionally, Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil and Vice President of Engineering Srinivas Narayanan will continue to lead OpenAI's applications team and be responsible for implementing the company's technology for enterprise and customer applications. Fellow Josh Achiam will take on the new role of mission coordination manager. Altoman says, "Work throughout the company to ensure all works and cultures in a place to succeed in the mission."

"Mark, Jacubu, Kevin, Slinibus, Matt, and Josh will report to me," said Altoman. "I've spent most of my time in the past year in the past year, and I'm looking forward to spending most of my time on the company's technical and product parts."

In his post, Altman tried to guarantee that the change in leadership was simply a normal business course. "Changes in leadership have developed very quickly and are a natural element of companies in a very harsh company," he said. "I don't claim that it's obviously so steep, but we're not a normal business. There is no reason for Mira to me (there is no good moment. I revealed it, and she wanted to do this when OPTAI was increasing).

McGrew said that he was simply "when he took a break." "The last eight years of Openai were humiliating and impressive journey," he added in his own article. "The small nonprofit I joined in January 2017 has grown into the world's largest research and implementation company. I have every confidence in [OpenAI's] leadership." 

McGrew joined OpenAI in 2017 as a member of the technical team and was promoted to vice president of research in 2018, then chief scientific officer.

Zof, who joined OpenAI in 2022, said in a separate post that "exploring new opportunities outside of OpenAI" "seemed like a natural fit" for him. Zof led the post-training team that trains and improves OpenAI models before deploying them in products like ChatGPT and the OpenAI API, as well as other internal OpenAI research groups. “This is a personal decision based on how I want to develop the next phase of my career,” he continued.

OpenAI’s outgoing executives can publicly claim that the split was amicable. However, they have reported shortly after the report that Openai is planning to shift from non -profit companies to profit organizations, and Altman will receive 7 % of stocks.

Against the backdrop of the company's instructions, the difference in opinion on the company's instructions may have been a straw that broke the camel back. More details are expected on Thursday, when OpenAI is scheduled to hold its general meeting.

McGrew, Zof and Murati are the latest senior executives to leave OpenAI in recent months. The outstanding researcher Andrei Calpati left open in February, Satsukeber and former security leader Yang Lake announced in May, and co -founder John Schulman participated in human competitors. He said he would leave. On the other hand, GREG BROCKMAN, the president of Openai, is on a long vacation until the end of the year. Of the 13 people who helped found OpenAI in 2015, only three remain.

"Leading OpenAI has been a time-consuming experience," Altman said in a message. “On the one hand, it’s a privilege… to be the fastest-growing company that can put our cutting-edge research in the hands of hundreds of millions of people. On the other hand, he’s relentlessly guided the team through this milestone – and they’ve gone above and beyond what anyone could have expected of the company.”

OpenAI’s press office did not respond to questions about the latest departures.