Fidji Simo steps down as OpenAI’s applications chief to focus on POTS recovery

Fidji Simo is stepping down from her role leading OpenAI’s applications business to focus on recovering from postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, a chronic illness she has lived with for the past seven years.

POTS affects the body’s autonomic nervous system and can cause symptoms including fatigue, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, headaches and fainting. Simo described it as ‘jarring’ to spend her days helping build the future of AI while managing a disabling illness that currently has no cure. She is moving into a part-time advisory position at OpenAI, saying her immediate priority is recovery, while adding that she continues to believe technology has the potential to solve deeply human problems.

In a social media post announcing the move, Simo said she became ill while working at Facebook, where she spent a decade in several leadership roles, and that doctors, friends, colleagues and loved ones encouraged her over the years to slow down. She revealed that two years after she got sick, Facebook offered her a full year of medical leave, which she turned down without consideration.

She recalled that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told her at the time that she should ‘play the long game,’ adding, ‘I wish I had listened.’ Looking back, she said the same determination that helped her succeed also made it difficult for her to step away from work.

Responding to her announcement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on X: ‘i am really sad about this and very grateful for all fidji has done for openai, and even grateful for her friendship and who she is as a person. we all wish her the best for a speedy recovery. this sucks.’