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Fact-Check: OpenAI's New Interim CEO Mira Murati is Albanian, Not Indian

Before joining OpenAI in 2018, Mira Murati has worked with Tesla, Leap Motion, and Goldman Sachs.

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Shortly after OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman's ouster from the company, Mira Murati's name started trending on social media as it was announced that she would be temporarily taking over the company from Altman.

What is the claim: Several social media users, including some media houses, incorrectly reported that Murati is an Indian-origin person.

Hindi news channel News24 misspelt her name as "Meera Murthy".

(Archives of more such posts can be found here and here.)

What is the truth: The claim that Murati is Indian is false. The 34-year-old mechanical engineer is born to Albanian parents and studied in Canada.

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How did we find that out: We conducted a keyword search for Mira Murati on Google and found several profile stories and interview of hers done by international publications.

  • A report in American dialy The New York Times stated that she was born in Albania and later moved to Canada for her higher studies.

  • An interview and profile published in American business magazine Fortune reiterated the same.

  • It said that she moved out of Albania at the age of 16 when she was awarded a scholarship to attend an international school in Vancouver, Canada and later got an engineering degree from Dartmouth before moving to San Francisco.

  • Read more about Murati in our story here.

  • On the contrary, we could not find any credible report that said that Murati came from an Indian background.

  • In fact, we also found that Murati was a popular Albanian surname.

  • Earlier in the year, when Murati was giving interviews on ChatGPT, she was also misidentified as Indian by several news organisations.

Conclusion: OpenAI's new interim CEO Mira Murati is not an Indian-origin person, but is from Albania.

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)

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