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Or sign-in if you have an account.Mira Murati’s remarks echoed her testimony in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI in April, where she said the company was at risk of falling apart after Sam Altman’s removal. Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI/AFP via Getty ImagesOpenAI would likely have unravelled if Sam Altman hadn’t returned as chief executive following his brief ouster in 2023, former tech chief Mira Murati said, offering her clearest account yet of one of Silicon Valley’s most dramatic boardroom battles.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorMurati, who later left OpenAI to found Thinking Machines Lab, was one of a key cohort who helped reinstate Altman after his shock firing nearly three years ago. The episode thrust Murati into the spotlight after she was briefly named interim CEO. When she quickly set about trying to bring Altman back, the board replaced her with former Twitch chief Emmett Shear.More than 700 of OpenAI’s roughly 770 employees then signed a letter threatening to quit and follow Altman to Microsoft Corp. – and barely five days after he was fired, Altman was reinstated with a reconstituted board.Breaking business news, incisive views, must-reads and market signals. Weekdays by 9 a.m.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Posthaste will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again“When I realized that their decision was potentially catastrophic for the company — that things would potentially fall apart — I felt like I had to act very quickly,” Murati said. If she hadn’t, “quite likely, OpenAI would have imploded,” Murati said at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco.Murati’s remarks echoed her testimony in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI in April, where she said the company was at risk of falling apart after Altman’s removal. She also testified she had concerns about Altman’s leadership. Former OpenAI board member Helen Toner offered a more complicated portrait of Murati’s role in a deposition, saying Murati “was waiting to see which way the wind would blow, and she didn’t realize she was the wind.”“Even though, on the surface, it looked very chaotic, at each point in time I felt very clear about what I had to do,” Murati said Thursday. “To provide continuity and stability, to help restore that, get the team in place to then deliver.”Murati, who left OpenAI in late 2024, is now making the case for a different vision of artificial intelligence, one centred on what she calls “interaction models.”Thinking Machines is building those systems as companies like OpenAI, Anthropic PBC and Alphabet Inc.’s Google invest billions of dollars in increasingly powerful AI models. The startup raised US$2 billion at a US$12 billion valuation last year, and was said to have been in discussions about a bigger, subsequent round. Several employees have since left her company.Thinking Machines has released a developer tool called Tinker, but has yet to launch a flagship consumer product.“The types of models we work with today, they’re very turn-based,” Murati said. “You talk, they talk, then they go off and think once you’ve given a prompt on what it is you want to do.”“Our interactions with each other are very rich,” she said. “There’s a lot of information in our interactions – when we’re silent, when we’re thinking, when we’re interrupting one another. Interaction models are able to capture all of these nuances.”Asked whether the public should simply trust the leaders building AI, Murati pointed not to character but to structure.“Ideally, the structure of governance and decision-making should not hinge on one person,” she said. “Morality is not everything. You have to think about actual decision-making structures, transparency and governance.”Asked whether she has the competitive drive to take on Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and other AI leaders, Murati said: “In terms of killer instinct, I would say that’s not really what motivates me,” she said.Instead, she returned to the idea at the centre of her company: that humans and machines should advance together, rather than one outrunning the other. Murati said current discussions around “humans in the loop” often imply people merely approve decisions made by AI systems. Her goal is closer collaboration.“It’s more like a tandem bike,” she said. “Both people are pedalling,” she added, “both hands are on the wheel.” Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.