OpenAI’s Fidji Simo Plans to Make ChatGPT Way More Useful—and Have You Pay For It
In case OpenAI The structure couldn’t be stranger – a non-profit in charge of a for-profit business turned public benefit corporation – it now has two CEOs. There’s Sam Altman, general manager of the entire company, who manages research and calculation. And since this summer, there is Fidji Simo, the former CEO of Instacart, who manages everything else.
Simo hasn’t been seen much at OpenAI’s San Francisco office since she started as apps CEO in August. But her presence is felt at every level of the company, not least because she runs ChatGPT and virtually every function that could make OpenAI money. Simo is facing a relapse of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) which makes her prone to fainting if she stands for long periods of time. So for now, she works from home in Los Angeles and uses Slack. A lot.
“By being there every day from 8 a.m. to midnight, responding within five minutes, people have the impression that I’m there and that they can reach me immediately, that I jump on the phone within five minutes,” she tells me. Employees confirm that this is true. OpenAI’s famous Slack culture can be overwhelming for new hires. But not, apparently, for Simo. Employees say she is often seen popping up on channels and threads, sharing her thoughts and asking questions.
Simo joined OpenAI during a chaotic period, expanding in almost every direction. There are sovereign AI partnerships, new models, retail partnerships, multi-billion dollar IT deals, a proprietary chip, a mystery hardware product – and of course, ChatGPT. “We’re not fighting for reach,” Simo says. “We are fighting for less reach.”
Outside of Silicon Valley, Simo’s hiring came as a surprise. For those in the know, this was less of a shock. Originally from Sète, a small fishing town in the south of France, Simo made her name running the Facebook app at Meta before taking the helm at Instacart in 2021. She took the grocery startup public two years later. In the Valley, she is known as a product visionary, renowned for evolving consumer applications around the world.
Simo’s role at OpenAI is, in large part, doing the same thing: turning the company’s research breakthroughs into compelling, lucrative consumer products. It faces daunting competition from tech giants like Google and Meta, as well as AI startups founded by OpenAI alumni, including Thinking Machines Lab, Anthropic, and Periodic Labs. “What keeps me up at night is that the intelligence of our models is way ahead of the number of people using them,” says Simo. “I see my job as bridging that gap.”
Since his arrival, Simo has overseen the launch of Pulse, a product that connects to users’ calendars and provides them with personalized information based on their schedule, chat history and comments; created a job platform to allow people to obtain certification in AI and search for positions that leverage their skills; and increased efforts to improve ChatGPT’s responses to people experiencing acute mental health crises. Ultimately, according to sources, she will be the one to decide how to deploy ads in the free tier of ChatGPT.
