This Week in Tech, Race, and Gender - DINT 140
One of the few female players in AI, Mira Murati, has been staffing her stealth startup with men only … so far.
Murati’s Money Moves: Former OpenAI exec gathers A-team for stealth startup
Mira Murati was CEO of OpenAI for all of three days back in November 2023. That made her the first female CEO of a top AI company.
Check this out if you want to review our coverage of Murati’s saga during that tumultuous time:
![[Breaking News] First female CEO of top AI firm, Mira Murati, ousted in just 2 days amidst OpenAI Shakespearean drama and intrigue](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5992c595-1863-4536-9059-0b3f210ed3a5_1080x1080.png)
Fast forward more than a year later and she has left the company, raised $100 million in seed funding, and is now recruiting (some say, poaching) the AI industry’s top research and engineering talent.
Oddly enough, none of Murati’s first picks are women
At the intersection of tech, race, and gender, Murati stood as a symbol of advancement and an example of what’s possible for a non-U.S.-born woman at the pinnacle of tech’s most impactful movement yet, AI.
Which begs the question, when we reach the top, do we forget those like us in need of a boost?
I have yet to come across a direct quote from Murati about women in AI or in the tech industry in general.
Related Coverage:
Women make up less than 14% of global leadership in AI. With Murati occupying one of those coveted roles, and with a startup warchest in the hundreds of millions, it would seem easy to elevate women into positions of power for Murati.
So, who did Murati pick for her $100M startup? Men from her inner circle at OpenAI
Murati’s startup is called Thinking Machine Labs, according to The Information. So far, though, all of the notable hires for Murati have been male. Let’s take a look at the lineup:
John Schulman:
co-founder of OpenAI
prominent figure in AI alignment research
joined Murati's startup after a brief stint at Anthropic
known for developing reinforcement learning techniques and fine-tuning generative AI models like ChatGPT.
Christian Gibson:
Previously part of OpenAI's supercomputing team
Provides expertise in the infrastructure necessary for cutting-edge AI research.
Jonathan Lachman:
Former head of special projects at OpenAI
experience in managing complex AI initiatives.
Mario Saltarelli:
longtime IT manager at OpenAI
brings operational and technical support expertise.
Barret Zoph:
A leading AI researcher.
Note: Zoph left OpenAI in November 2024, the same month that Murati did. We covered the shakeup from that month story more extensively here.
While all of these men hail from Murati’s inner circle, there is a a female OpenAI alum Murati knows. Her name is Irene Solaiman and right now she’s heading up global policy at Hugging Face. While the scope of Murati’s startup is unknown, one would imagine global advocacy being a key part of any emerging AI firm’s operations.
Murati has a decent pool of female AI talent to choose from
If Murati asked DINT for advice, we would recommend women outside of her current group, in key areas for AI startups such as:
Sustainability
Sasha Luccioni
leading researcher at Hugging Face and Climate Change AI
works on integrating sustainability into AI development.
focuses on reducing the environmental impact of machine learning models.
Ethics
Francesca Rossi
IBM’s Global AI Ethics Lead, Rossi
specializes in designing transparent and accountable AI systems
plays a key role in shaping global discussions on ethical AI practices.
Accountability
Cynthia Rudin
professor at Duke University
researches interpretable AI to ensure transparency in critical applications like healthcare and criminal justice
prioritizes fairness and accountability in decision-making systems.
Other names that immediately come to mind when thinking of women in the AI space
Joy Buolamwini, Timnit Gebru, and Sinead Bovell, all lead their own organizations. They’re also doing impactful work and would be great as advisors, partners, board members for Murati’s group.
Murati can show, rather than tell, why diversity matters in AI and beyond
It’s critical to diversify voices among top leadership in AI. Murati, with her funds, reputation, and impeccable timing, is well-positioned to serve as an example of how gender diversity can operate in the industry.
It would be too much pressure to say Murati can completely remake the industry or to predict inherent success because of diversity at her firm. Still, this moment in AI presents great opportunities for a case study in gender diversity rather than a targeted and titled program around diversity with the now-hated DEI handle.
One wonders, in today’s diversity-hostile environment, would adding women to key roles in leadership negatively affect Murati’s second round of funding for Thinking Machines Lab? We’re watching this space closely and look forward to sharing more as developments arise.
What are your thoughts? Have we missed an important name on the list of leading women in AI? Do you believe Murati will eventually beef up her roster with female talent or will her current trend of male hires continue? Click below to share your thoughts with us!
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