Hello All–
Mira has been instrumental to OpenAI’s progress and development the final 6.5 years; she has been a vastly important think about our improvement from an unknown analysis lab to an necessary firm.
When Mira knowledgeable me this morning that she was leaving, I used to be saddened however after all assist her determination. For the previous yr, she has been constructing out a powerful bench of leaders that may proceed our progress.
I additionally need to share that Bob and Barret have determined to depart OpenAI. Mira, Bob, and Barret made these selections independently of one another and amicably, however the timing of Mira’s determination was such that it made sense to now do that suddenly, in order that we will work collectively for a clean handover to the following era of management.
I’m extraordinarily grateful to all of them for his or her contributions.
Being a frontrunner at OpenAI is all-consuming. On one hand it’s a privilege to construct AGI and be the fastest-growing firm that will get to place our superior analysis within the palms of lots of of tens of millions of individuals. Alternatively it’s relentless to guide a staff by it—they usually have gone above and past the decision of responsibility for the corporate.
Mark goes to be our new SVP of Analysis and can now lead the analysis org in partnership with Jakub as Chief Scientist. This has been our long-term succession plan for Bob sometime; though it’s taking place earlier than we thought, I couldn’t be extra excited that Mark is getting into the function. Mark clearly has deep technical experience, however he has additionally discovered methods to be a frontrunner and supervisor in a really spectacular means over the previous few years.
Josh Achiam goes to tackle a brand new function as Head of Mission Alignment, working throughout the corporate to make sure that we get all items (and tradition) proper to be in a spot to succeed on the mission.
Kevin and Srinivas will proceed to guide the Utilized staff.
Matt Knight will likely be our Chief Info Safety Officer having already served on this capability for a very long time. This has been our plan for fairly a while.
Mark, Jakub, Kevin, Srinivas, Matt, and Josh will report back to me. I’ve over the previous yr or so spent most of my time on the non-technical components of our group; I’m now trying ahead to spending most of my time on the technical and product components of the corporate.
Tonight, we’re going to collect at 575 beginning at 5:30 pm. Mira, Bob, Barret, and Mark will likely be there. This will likely be about displaying our appreciation and reflecting on all we’ve carried out collectively. Then tomorrow, we’ll all have an all-hands and may reply any questions then. A calendar invite will come quickly.
Management modifications are a pure a part of firms, particularly firms that develop so shortly and are so demanding. I clearly gained’t faux it’s pure for this one to be so abrupt, however we’re not a traditional firm, and I feel the explanations Mira defined to me (there may be by no means a superb time, something not abrupt would have leaked, and he or she needed to do that whereas OpenAI was in an upswing) make sense. We will each discuss this extra tomorrow throughout all-hands.
Thanks for your entire arduous work and dedication.
Sam