Fidji Simo has stepped down from leading OpenAI’s AGI project due to illness

OpenAI’s Fidji Simo is stepping down from his full-time role as the company’s head of AGI and is transitioning to a “part-time consultant,” he said on X.

This article follows Simo’s original announcement in April that he will be taking a few weeks of medical leave due to a neuroimmune disease, shortly after taking over the senior role of AGI. (He was previously the CEO of the company’s applications). At the same time, COO Brad Lightcap also stepped down to focus on “special projects,” and OpenAI CMO Kate Rouch also stepped down to focus on her health. Rouch planned to return to “less active duty” as soon as his health permitted, Simo said at the time.

Simo’s announcement in April began months of announcements of changes to the C-suite. While Simo was on medical leave, OpenAI President Greg Brockman was to oversee sales, including leading OpenAI’s top operations, while CSO Jason Kwon, CFO Sarah Friar, and CRO Denise Dresser led the business.

But about a month laterin mid-May, things changed again, reorganizing the company: Brockman oversaw OpenAI’s product development and “upgrade,” leading four distinct pillars: core product and platform; critical industries; consumers (eg, health, marketing, and personal finance); and architecture, marketing, data science, and growth. In a memo seen by Seaside in MayBrockman wrote that the restructuring would help the company prioritize its AI goals by combining its products to “invest in a single platform and unify ChatGPT and Codex into one unified product for all.”

Simo wrote: “Three months ago, I went on vacation because of a serious illness that I have had for 7 years. on X. “At this point, it became clear that the road to recovery was going to be longer and more difficult than I expected – and that I needed to focus on…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on X that “he was really sad about this” and thanked Simo.