When investors poured $6.6 billion into OpenAI last week, they seemed largely unfazed by the latest drama that recently left the company’s chief technology officer Mira Murati, chief research officer Bob McCrew and Barret Zoph, vice president of research , suddenly left their position. .
Yet these three departures were just the latest in an ongoing exodus of key technical talent. Over the past few years, OpenAI has lost several researchers who were instrumental in developing the algorithms, techniques and infrastructure that made it a global leader in artificial intelligence and a household name. Several other former OpenAI employees who spoke to WIRED said the continued shift to a more commercial approach continues to be a source of friction.
“People who like to do research are being forced to build products,” says a former employee who works at a rival artificial intelligence company but has friends at OpenAI. This person claims that in recent weeks some of his contacts at the company have contacted him to inquire about job opportunities. According to them, OpenAI itself has also apparently changed its hiring priorities compiled data for WIRED by Shedding lighta company that tracks job advertisements to analyze trends in the labor market. In 2021, 23 percent of job postings were for general research positions. In 2024, general research accounted for only 4.4%. job advertisements.
Brain drain could have lasting consequences for the direction and future success of OpenAI. Experts and former employees say the company still has a deep talent pool, but competition is intensifying, making it hard to maintain an advantage.
The latest big-name departure, revealed on Thursday, is Tim Brooks, head of the Sora AI video generation project at OpenAI. Brooks published in October that it will join one of OpenAI’s main rivals, Google DeepMind.
“This could start to change everything,” says a former OpenAI employee who now works in academia about the losses. They asked to remain anonymous for fear that it would harm cooperative relations with the artificial intelligence industry.
According to this person, many students still put OpenAI at the top of their list of potential employers. The event is considered to be held several months ahead of the competition, and potential employees are often willing to endure the apparent drama and conflict to attend. However, candidates are also often drawn to working with a specific researcher or team, and their calculations may change as more high-profile researchers leave for rival AI companies or their own startups.
A look at some of OpenAI’s most significant research shows just how much talent has left. Of the 31 people listed as authors of an early version of OpenAI’s large-language GPT model, less than half remain at OpenAI, according to employment details obtained from LinkedIn or other public social media profiles. Several members of the team responsible for GPT’s development left OpenAI in 2021, forming Anthropic, now its main rival. About a third of the people mentioned in the acknowledgments of a technical blog post describing ChatGPT have left.