A high-ranking executive at OpenAI who served a few days as its interim CEO during a period of turmoil last year said she’s leaving the artificial intelligence company.
Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, said in a written statement Wednesday that after much reflection she has “made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI.”
“I’m stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration,” she said.
It’s the latest leadership shakeup at the company. Its president and co-founder, Greg Brockman, said in August he was “taking a sabbatical” through the end of the year. Another co-founder, Ilya Sutskever, who led a team focused on AI safety, left in May and has started his own AI company.
Days after Sutskever’s departure, his safety team co-leader Jan Leike also resigned and leveled criticism at OpenAI for letting safety “take a backseat to shiny products.”
Murati spoke positively of the company and its CEO Sam Altman in a departing note to colleagues shared on social media, describing it as “at the pinnacle of AI innovation” and saying it’s hard to leave a place one cherishes.
Altman later replied to Murati’s post on X and expressed his gratitude for her service to the company.
“It’s hard to overstate how much Mira has meant to OpenAI, our mission, and to us all personally,” he wrote. Altman also said the company would provide more information on the leadership transition in the coming days.
Murati was suddenly catapulted to be the company’s interim CEO late last year after the board of directors fired Altman, sparking upheaval in the AI industry. The company later brought in another interim CEO before restoring Altman to his leadership role and replacing most of the board members who ousted him.
Barbra Streisand approves multi-part documentary that will draw upon her archives
A year after telling her story in a 1,000-page memoir, Barbra Streisand has approved a multi-part documentary about her life — to be directed by fellow Oscar winner Frank Marshall.
The documentary, announced Thursday by Sony Music Vision, is currently untitled and does not have a release date. It will feature rarely seen video, photographs and audio recordings from Streisand's personal archives. Oscar-winning documentary maker Alex Gibney, whose many credits include films about Paul Simon and Steve Jobs, will serve as producer.
"For years I've been thinking about the best way to share the vast amount of content I've been safely storing in my vault," the 82-year-old Streisand said in a statement. "These films, photos and music masters — many never seen or heard by the public — hold some of my most cherished memories. I'm so pleased that producer Alex Gibney and director Frank Marshall have agreed to take this journey with me."
Marshall, who has directed documentaries about the Beach Boys and the Bee Gees and produced such classics as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Sixth Sense," said in a statement that the Streisand movie would "illustrate why she has become an enduring icon to a global audience of all generations."
Sony Music Vision is presenting and distributing the project in partnership with her longtime record label, Columbia Records.
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