Fidji Simo has commenced her role at OpenAI, taking the helm of a workforce of around 3,000 employees. Her first week has begun as the company positions itself for a new direction.
OpenAI leadership has labeled the former CEO of Instacart as the steady influence the organization requires. Simo’s objective is straightforward: to transform OpenAI from a tumultuous, unprofitable startup into a disciplined, publicly traded tech powerhouse. Her credentials suggest she is up to the challenge, having navigated Facebook’s rapid expansion in the early years of the 2010s, facilitated Instacart’s IPO, and held extensive expertise in the advertising domain, which will be beneficial with the anticipated rollout of ads in ChatGPT.
The hiring of Simo reflects a broader transformation within OpenAI, highlighting that CEO Sam Altman appears to be stepping away from the daily operational responsibilities typical of running a large tech company. Instead, he seems to be prioritizing efforts to secure massive funding for extensive computational projects and supporting the enhancement of a brain-computer interface startup, rather than overseeing everyday management tasks. During a dinner discussion last week, Altman was animated when discussing a “new kind of financial instrument” designed to finance OpenAI’s data center initiatives.
When queried about his vision for OpenAI evolving similar to Alphabet—where profits from search support a range of experimental initiatives—Altman acknowledged the necessity for another leader. He noted, “We have a significant consumer tech company, a massive infrastructure project for humanity, a research lab, and then all the new ideas from robots to devices to BCI. I cannot manage four companies at once. It’s questionable if I can handle one, but definitely not four.”
For the time being, Altman will remain engaged with OpenAI’s computing, research, and consumer hardware projects, collaborating with Jony Ive. The new BCI venture, co-founded with Worldcoin CEO Alex Blania, operates independently from OpenAI. Within the company, Altman’s direct reports include president Greg Brockman, who leads scaling projects like Stargate, chief research officer Mark Chen, chief scientist Jakub Pachocki, consumer hardware VP Peter Welinder, and head of safety Johannes Heidecke.
Simo’s role will involve overseeing what Altman refers to as the “big consumer tech” aspect of OpenAI. While her reporting structure is still being finalized, it is anticipated she will supervise COO Brad Lightcap, CFO Sarah Friar, CPO Kevin Weil, software engineering chief Srinivas Narayanan, as well as leaders in marketing, policy, legal, and human resources.
Managing this team will be challenging for Simo, as several executives are already closely associated with Altman or have held CEO roles themselves. Furthermore, she faces the task of replacing chief people officer Julia Villagra, who recently announced her departure to focus on using “art, music, and storytelling to help people better understand the transition to AGI.”
Simo holds the official title of CEO of Applications, an indication of her responsibilities. Currently, OpenAI’s only application is ChatGPT, with the next likely being a web browser. Additionally, her first monetization trial is expected to involve affiliate links within ChatGPT’s shopping results, which could be introduced as early as this fall.
So far, Simo has only introduced herself to employees through a Slack message and a recent blog post filled with optimism for the AGI era. She has not yet publicly articulated a specific vision for ChatGPT or OpenAI’s strategy regarding consumers. As she is still acclimating to her new role and connecting with various teams, more concrete plans from her are anticipated in the near future.
Overheard
“Far more AI talent has come into Google and Google DeepMind than has left, especially amongst our top competitors.” – Google VP John Casey during an employee all-hands meeting.
“I would say the number of people who I would trust with a giant dollar amount of compute to go do that is probably sub-150.” Amazon’s head of AGI research, David Luan, discussing the market for elite AI talent during a conversation.
Elon Musk reached out to Mark Zuckerberg in discussions related to potential financing arrangements or investments in Musk’s proposed takeover of OpenAI earlier this year. – OpenAI’s lawyers noted in a court brief. Huh?
Personnel
Noteworthy career movements this week:
- Ashley Alexander, the co-head of product for Instagram, is set to join OpenAI as VP of product for health. She stated: “With the way technology is advancing right now, I feel for the first time my skill set has the potential to really bend the curve on healthcare quality and access.”
- Brian Hall, VP of product at Google Cloud, recently involved in a lawsuit from Amazon over his prior employment, revealed that he is moving on to a career in AI.
- Frank Chu, an AI infrastructure leader from Apple, is transitioning to Meta’s Superintelligence Lab.
Links
Here are some interesting reads:
- An MIT report reveals corporate AI investments that alarmed Wall Street.
- A complete internal memo from Meta chief AI officer Alexandr Wang regarding the restructuring of their AI team.
- Insights from Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman on the emerging risks of “seemingly conscious AI.”
- An interview with Google devices chief Rick Osterloh discussing future hardware plans.
- A conversation with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on the podcast hosted by Stripe co-founder John Collison.
- “Get hot, do drugs, build a bunker: Explore the world of Silicon Valley’s AI super preppers.”
Don’t forget to subscribe to Technology News for unlimited access to Command Line and all our reporting.
As always, feedback is welcome. You can respond here or contact me securely on Signal.
Thank you for subscribing.
7 Comments
