A top executive at OpenAI, who briefly served as its temporary CEO during a period of internal challenges last year, announced her departure from the artificial intelligence company.

Mira Murati, OpenAI's chief technology officer , stated in a written statement on Wednesday that, after careful consideration, she has “made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI.”

“I’m stepping away because I want to take the time and space to pursue my own personal endeavors,” she said.

Two other top executives are also leaving the company, CEO Sam Altman announced later Wednesday. The decisions by Murati, along with OpenAI's Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and another research leader, Barret Zoph, were made “independently of each other and amicably,” Altman said in a note to employees he shared on social media.

These departures are the latest in a string of high-profile exits from San Francisco-based OpenAI, which began as a nonprofit research lab and is best known for developing ChatGPT. Its president and co-founder, Greg Brockman, announced in August that he would be “taking a sabbatical” through the end of the year. Another co-founder, John Schulman, left in August to join rival Anthropic, founded in 2021 by a group of former OpenAI leaders.

Another co-founder, Ilya Sutskever, who previously led a team focused on AI safety, departed in May and has since founded his own AI company.

Following Sutskever's exit, his colleague and co-leader of the safety team, Jan Leike, also stepped down. Leike publicly criticized OpenAI for prioritizing product development over safety concerns.

Murati expressed her appreciation for the company and Altman in a farewell note to colleagues shared on social media, describing it as “at the forefront of AI innovation” and stating that leaving such a cherished place is difficult.

Altman expressed his appreciation for Murati's contributions and acknowledged that leadership transitions are common for rapidly expanding companies.

“While I won't claim this change is typical, it's important to understand that we are not a conventional company,” Altman stated in an X post, also announcing new roles for six other employees.

Murati unexpectedly took on the interim CEO position late last year after the board of directors dismissed Altman. This triggered significant disruption in the AI sector. The company later appointed another interim CEO before ultimately reinstating Altman to his leadership position and replacing the majority of the board members who had initially removed him.