OpenAI's chief research officer Bob McGrew and vice president of research Barrett Zoff left the company hours after OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announced her departure.
CEO Sam Altman announced the latest resignations and the company's leadership transition plans in a post on X on Wednesday night.
“While Mira, Bob and Barrett each made these decisions independently and amicably, given the timing of Mira's decision, it makes sense to do this all at once so we can work together to ensure a smooth transition to the next generation of leadership,” he said.
Altman said vice president of research Mark Chen has been promoted to OpenAI's new senior vice president of research and will work with chief scientist Jakub Paczocki to lead the company's research organization.
Former security chief Matt Knight will become OpenAI's chief information security officer, while chief product officer Kevin Weil and vice president of engineering Srinivas Narayanan will continue to lead OpenAI's applications team, responsible for delivering the company's technology to both consumer and enterprise customers.
Research scientist Josh Akiam will take on the new role of head of mission coordination, “working across the company to make sure all the pieces (and culture) are in place to make the mission a success,” Altman said.
“Mark, Yakub, Kevin, Srinivas, Matt and Josh will report to me,” Altman added. “I've spent the majority of my time in the non-technical parts of the organization over the past year or so, but going forward I look forward to spending the majority of my time in the technical and product parts of the company.”
In his post, Altman sought to reassure staff — and outside observers — that the leadership transition was simply part of the normal course of business.
“Leadership transitions are natural for companies, especially fast-growing, demanding ones,” he said. “I wouldn't say it was natural that this transition was sudden, but we're not a normal company, and I think the reasons Mira explained to me (there's no good time, it had to be sudden or it would get leaked, and she wanted to do this at a time when OpenAI was going strong) make sense.”
OpenAI is holding an all-hands meeting tomorrow.