OpenAI’s Sora Chief, CTO Announce Departure Amid Company’s Growing Enterprise Focus

OpenAI seems to be undergoing a transition phase. As many as three senior leaders of the company have announced their departure this week, hinting at a change in structure and a massive reorganisation at play. Most notably, Bill Peebles, the Head of Sora, and Srinivas Narayanan, the CTO of B2B Applications, are leaving the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) giant. The departures come at a time when the ChatGPT maker is also shifting its focus from the end consumer to the enterprise space, powered by its Codex platform.

OpenAI Set to Lose Key Executives

In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Peebles announced that he will soon leave the company. Adding a note he shared with the team, he thanked OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, and said, “Building Sora zero-to-one with you all has been the honour and adventure of a lifetime.” The executive joined the company in March 2023 after an eight-month-long internship at Meta and was responsible for the development of the two Sora AI models and the Sora app.

He is, however, not the only senior figure to leave the company. OpenAI's CTO of B2B Applications, Srinivas Narayanan, also announced his departure on the social media platform. The former VP of Engineering at Facebook spent nearly four years at the company, leading the charge of some of the enterprise-focused products.

Additionally, Kevin Weil, the VP of Science at OpenAI, has also left the company. He said in a post that he left as the company's Science division was being decentralised into other research teams. The Verge recently reported that the company's CMO, Kate Rouch, is also stepping down to focus on her health and will transition to a narrower role upon her return. Similarly, OpenAI COO, Brad Lightcap, is also said to be stepping down and transitioning into a new role that focuses on special projects.

The organisational changes have come at a time when OpenAI is shifting its focus from several non-enterprise projects. Last month, the AI giant announced the decision to discontinue the Sora app and exit the partnership with Disney. It has also indefinitely paused plans to integrate the adult mode on ChatGPT that would let verified adult users have sexual conversations with ChatGPT.

OpenAI's sunsetting of these projects is linked with its increased focus on enterprise products, particularly Codex. The AI platform for coding and automation has recently received a major update, and the company has also increased usage limits for users. It is said that the AI giant is following in the footsteps of Anthropic and wants to capture the high-ticket enterprise market to boost its revenue.