OpenAI’s Fidji Simo plans to make the ChatGPT method more useful — and she’ll pay for it

In the case of OpenAI The structure couldn’t get any stranger—a nonprofit in charge of a for-profit corporation that became a public benefit corporation—now has two CEOs. There’s Sam Altman, the CEO of the entire company, who runs the research and computing. And as of this summer, there’s Fidji Simo, the former CEO of Instacart, running everything else.

Simo hasn’t been seen much at OpenAI’s San Francisco office since she started as chief applications officer in August. But her presence is felt at every level of the company, not least because she heads up ChatGPT and all the functions that would lead to the creation of a ChatGPT company. OpenAI money. Simo is dealing with a relapse of postural orthostatic tachycardia (POTS) syndrome that leaves her vulnerable to fainting if she stands for long periods of time. So, she’s currently working from home in Los Angeles, and she’s using Slack. a lot.

“Being there from 8 a.m. to midnight every day, and answering within five minutes, makes people feel like I’m there and that they can call me right away, and that I’m on the phone in five minutes,” she told me. The staff confirms that this is true. OpenAI’s popular Slack-based culture can be overwhelming for new employees. But not for Simo, it seems. Employees say she is often seen entering channels and topics, sharing ideas and asking questions.

Simo joined during a chaotic period for OpenAI, which was expanding in almost every direction. there Sovereign artificial intelligence Partnerships, new model releases, and retail partnerships, worth billions of dollars Account tradesa proprietary chip, an obscure hardware product, and of course ChatGPT. “We’re not fighting for scale,” Simo says. “We are fighting for less range.”

Outside Silicon Valley, Simo’s appointment came as a surprise. For those who knew, it was less shocking. Born in Sete, a small fishing town in the south of France, Simo made a name for herself running Meta’s Facebook app before taking the top job at Instacart in 2021. She acquired the grocery startup two years later. She is known in the Valley as a product visionary with a reputation for expanding consumer applications around the world.

Simo’s role at OpenAI is largely to do the same thing: turn the company’s research achievements into money-making, indispensable consumer products. It faces incredible competition from tech giants like Google and Meta, as well as AI startups founded by OpenAI graduates, including Thinking Machines Lab, Anthropic, and Periodic Labs. “The thing that keeps me up at night is that the intelligence of our models far exceeds the extent to which people use them,” Simo says. “I see it as my job to bridge that gap.”

Since her arrival, Simo has overseen the launch of Pulse, a product that connects to users’ calendars and gives them personal information based on their schedule, chat history, and comments; It created a careers platform to allow people to obtain an AI certification and search for roles that leverage their skills; And we redoubled our efforts to improve ChatGPT responses for people with severe symptoms Mental health crises. Ultimately, sources say, she will be the one to decide how ads are rolled out in ChatGPT’s free tier.