Instacart CEO Fiji Simo speaks in an interview on Bloomberg Studio 1.0 on Thursday, March 3, 2022 in San Francisco, California.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Fiji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, announced several leadership changes on Friday and revealed that he will be taking extensive medical leave due to worsening neuroimmune disease.
OpenAI hired Simo in May, but she told staff in a memo Friday that her symptoms returned several weeks before taking on the role. She said the past month had been “particularly challenging health-wise” and decided she needed a few weeks off to recover.
“Throughout my time here, I have postponed medical tests and new treatments in order to focus fully on work and not miss a single day of work,” Simo wrote in a memo seen by CNBC. “I took my first day off for a health check two weeks before my holiday, and it became clear that I had pushed myself a bit too hard and needed to try new interventions to stabilize my health.”
In Simo’s absence, OpenAI President Greg Brockman will oversee the product, she said. Simo also announced that OpenAI’s chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, will be transitioning to a new role focused on “special projects.” He will report directly to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
“We have a strong leadership team focused on our biggest priorities: advancing frontier research, growing our global user base of nearly 1 billion users, and strengthening our enterprise use cases,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. “We are well-positioned to continue executing with continuity and momentum.”
Watch: AI and Rare Disease Applications with OpenAI CEO Fiji Simo
