Read Sam Altman’s memo to OpenAI staff announcing more exits

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the departures. But Zoph confirmed his departure, posting a note to X saying he had decided to leave OpenAI. And Kylie Robison of The Verge posted on X that McGrew has left the company.

Read Altman’s note to X below:

I just posted this note on openai:

Hello everyone-

Mira has been central to the progress and growth of OpenAI over the past 6.5 years; she was an extremely significant factor in our development from an unknown research laboratory to a major company.

When Mira informed me this morning that she was leaving, I was saddened, but of course I support her decision. Over the past year, she has built a strong bench of leaders who will continue our progress.

I also want to let you know that Bob and Barret have decided to leave OpenAI. Mira, Bob, and Barret made these decisions independently of each other and amicably, but the timing of Mira’s decision was so logical that it made sense to do it all at once now so we could work together for a seamless handover to the next generation. driving.

I am extremely grateful to all of them for their contributions.

Being a leader at OpenAI is all-consuming. On the one hand, it’s a privilege to build AGI and be the fastest-growing company that can put our advanced research in the hands of hundreds of millions of people. On the other hand, it’s relentless to lead a team through it – and they’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty for the company.

Mark will be our new SVP of Research and will now lead the research organization in partnership with Jakub as Chief Scientist. This was our long-term succession plan for Bob one day; although it’s happening sooner than I thought, I couldn’t be more excited to have Mark step into this role. Mark obviously has deep technical expertise, but he has also learned how to be a leader and manager in a very impressive way over the last few years.

Josh Achiam will take on a new role as Head of Mission Alignment, working across the company to ensure we get all the right pieces (and culture) in place to succeed in the mission.

Kevin and Srinivas will continue to lead the Applied team.

Matt Knight will be our Chief Information Security Officer, having already served in this capacity for a long time. This has been our plan for some time.

Mark, Jakub, Kevin, Srinivas, Matt and Josh will report to me. Over the past year I have spent most of my time on the non-technical parts of our organization; I now look forward to spending most of my time on the technical and product sides of the company.

Tonight we will gather at 575 starting at 5:30 p.m. Mira, Bob, Barret and Mark will be there. It will be about showing our appreciation and reflecting on all that we have done together. Then tomorrow we’ll all have everyone’s hands and we’ll be able to answer any questions then. A calendar invite is coming soon.

Leadership changes are a natural part of companies, especially companies that grow so fast and are so demanding. Obviously, I won’t pretend it’s natural for it to be so sudden, but we’re not a normal company, and I think the reasons Mira explained to me (there’s never a good time, anything that wasn’t sudden, and she wanted to do this while OpenAI was on the rise) makes sense. We can both talk more about this tomorrow during all the hands.

Thank you for all your hard work and dedication.

Sat.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.