Mira Murati, OpenAI's former chief technology officer who briefly served as the company's CEO in 2023, testified in court that Sam Altman created distrust and confusion among senior leaders. Her testimony came during the ongoing lawsuit filed by Elon Musk against OpenAI, where Musk accused the company of abandoning its nonprofit mission.
Musk Reacts to Murati's Testimony
Hours after reports about Murati's testimony surfaced online, Musk publicly responded to a social media post calling her a key witness. Musk wrote, "Mira is cool," followed by a heart emoji, drawing attention amid the high-profile legal battle.
Murati Accuses Altman of Creating Chaos
Murati's recorded testimony was played in a federal court in Oakland, California, during the second week of the trial. Speaking about CEO Sam Altman, she said: "My concern was about Sam saying one thing to one person and completely the opposite to another person." She also claimed Altman was "creating chaos" inside the company and said there were times when he was deceptive with her and other executives. Despite these concerns, Murati added that she still wanted Altman to remain CEO after he was temporarily removed in 2023. "OpenAI was at catastrophic risk of falling apart," she said. "I was concerned about the company completely blowing up."
Murati's Brief Tenure as CEO
After Sam Altman was ousted by the board in November 2023, Murati briefly served as CEO. In her testimony, she revealed that she supported efforts to bring Altman back, pressing board members for a fuller explanation of his ouster. "I realized the board had not followed a process that could be trusted with regards to firing Sam," Murati said. "As we can see in retrospect, the way they handled it caused complete and utter chaos." Murati left OpenAI in September 2024 to start her own AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab.
Murati Calls Nadella a 'Voice of Reason'
In her testimony, Murati revealed she kept in close contact with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the tumultuous time. Text messages displayed in court showed she texted Nadella asking him to call her to coordinate "how to talk with sam here." Murati called Nadella a "voice of reason," adding, "it was kind of a crazy situation." She also said rivals, specifically Google and Musk's AI companies, tried to poach OpenAI staff. "Very important we don't lose researchers to Demis or Elon," Murati reportedly texted Nadella, referring to Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google's DeepMind.
