OpenAI's New Applications CEO Outlines Vision for AI's Societal Impact

OpenAI's New CEO of Applications Strikes Hyper-Optimistic Tone in First Memo to Staff

Ex-Instacart CEO Fidji Simo sent a memo to staff Monday laying out her vision for how AI will change the world. OpenAI's incoming CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, sent her first note to staff on Monday, telling employees the tools they're developing "will unlock more opportunities for more people than any other technology in history." "If we get this right, AI can give everyone more power than ever," Simo wrote, striking a hyper-optimistic tone, according to a copy of the memo viewed by WIRED. "But I also realize those opportunities won't magically appear on their own." Simo previously worked as the CEO of Instacart. Before that, she spent a decade at Meta, where she went from being a product manager on the company's news feed to the head of product for the Facebook app. For the last year, Simo has been a member of OpenAI's board of directors. In her memo, Simo said she'll be starting her role as an OpenAI executive "in a few weeks." She'll report directly to CEO Sam Altman. Simo's primary role will be to lead the startup's business and operational teams, according to Altman's announcement about the hire in May. She'll be responsible for translating OpenAI's research into viable products like ChatGPT, the API (which developers use to build their own tools atop OpenAI's technology), and enterprise tools -- and securing high-profile business partnerships. In the memo, Simo outlines her thinking on how AI will impact knowledge, health, creative expression, economic freedom, time, and support. She promotes a few common ideas that paint a rosy picture of AI: personalized AI tutors, better health data, more opportunities for creative expression, efficiency gains from automation, and AI-powered emotional support (a hotly debated topic). "My business coach Katia has been transformative to my career, and I've joked with her over the years that everyone needs a 'Katia in their pocket,'" Simo wrote. "Personalized coaching has obviously been a privilege reserved for a few, but now with ChatGPT, it can be available to many." The memo reads like a mission statement, not just for the Applications division, but for OpenAI's broader bet: that it can build tools that feel as personal and indispensable as a search engine or a smartphone. In the memo, Simo positions OpenAI's products as the great equalizer that knocks down society's barriers to knowledge, income, and emotional clarity -- though whether it will actually do so remains to be seen. "AI can compress thousands of hours of learning into personalized insights delivered in plain language, at the pace that suits us, responsive to our specific level of understanding," Simo writes. "It doesn't just answer questions - it teaches us to ask better ones. And it helps us develop confidence in areas that once felt opaque or intimidating, growing both personally and professionally." The memo also hints at OpenAI's vision for emotional companions. In the closing section, Simo writes that AI coaches "can be available throughout every day, leverage their full understanding of all aspects of your life to help support you, and bring your subconscious patterns to your consciousness." That idea goes hand-in-hand with the rumored hardware device OpenAI is creating with famed designer Jony Ive, which the Wall Street Journal reported will be "fully aware of a user's surroundings and life." Altman hasn't shied away from flat out saying the company hopes to build an AI similar to the movie Her, where a lonely man fresh out of a failed marriage turns to a virtual companion named Samantha. That, of course, has also gotten Altman into hot water since critics note the film is more of a cautionary tale than a business opportunity. The memo was very on brand for an OpenAI executive: optimistic and based largely on future promises. While Altman, Simo's boss, works to coordinate some of the more futuristic ideas, like Stargate and artificial general intelligence, Simo will work to pair the startup's complicated research into real tools for consumers. "If AI can help people truly understand themselves, it could be one of the biggest gifts we could ever receive," Simo writes.

Instacart's former CEO is taking the reins of a big chunk of OpenAI

Hayden Field is The Verge's senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets. Instacart's former CEO, Fidji Simo, will start her new role as an OpenAI executive on August 18th, leading at least one-third of the company and reporting directly to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Simo will be "CEO of Applications," tasked with scaling and growing the tech's use cases. It's a brand-new role, first revealed as part of Altman's reorganization announcement in May. At the time, Altman wrote that he'd still oversee what he called the three pillars of OpenAI -- research, compute, and applications -- but that he would start to focus more on the research and compute side of things, including safety systems. Simo, on the other hand, will be more focused on product and growth. In a memo to employees, which was also published on OpenAI's blog, Simo wrote she was most excited for AI-led healthcare breakthroughs. She also wrote extensively about her belief in AI's ability to help with career and life coaching, creative expression, time-saving, medical second opinions, regaining time, creative expression, and personalized tutoring. Simo wrote that major technology trends can either expand access to power or "further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few -- usually people who already have money, credentials, and connections." She wrote that the choices the company and AI leaders make now "will shape whether the coming transformation leads to greater empowerment for all, or greater concentration of wealth and power for the few." Simo first joined OpenAI's board in March 2024. Her appointment came at the same time as CEO Sam Altman regained his board seat, after an internal investigation of the lead-up to his ouster. OpenAI's applications department "brings together a group of existing business and operational teams responsible for how our research reaches and benefits the world," Altman wrote in May, adding that Simo's role will focus on "enabling our 'traditional' company functions to scale as we enter a next phase of growth."

Fidji Simo Lays Out Vision As OpenAI CEO of Applications Ahead of August Start

Fidji Simo, the outgoing Instacart chief executive officer headed to OpenAI, outlined her vision for the newly created role of CEO of applications ahead of her official start at the ChatGPT maker next month. Simo will begin her new role on Aug. 18, an OpenAI spokesperson said. In a blog post published on the company's website on Monday, she set the tone for how she envisions the company's artificial intelligence technologies can be used by more people, rather than concentrated in the hands of the wealthy and connected. While she did not specify a product roadmap, she reflected on how AI can be useful in six broad areas, including knowledge, health, creative expression, economic freedom, time and support.

OpenAI's New Exec Has a Grand Plan to Make AI for Everyone

Fidji Simo, the former Instacart CEO, is betting she can turn AI from a luxury into a utility that closes the gap between the haves and have-nots. Fidji Simo knows technology can make life better or it can make inequality worse. As OpenAI’s incoming CEO of Applications, she’s making it clear which path she wants AI to take. “Every major technology shift can expand access to power," she said in her memo announcing her new role on July 21. "The power to make better decisions, shape the world around us, and control our own destiny in new ways. But it can also further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a fewâ€"usually people who already have money, credentials, and connections." She continued: "That’s why we have to be intentional about how we build and share these technologies so they lead to greater opportunity and prosperity for more people." Simo comes to OpenAI after leading Instacart, where she took what was once considered a luxury, paying someone else to do your grocery shopping, and turned it into a mainstream habit. Her track record suggests she knows how to make tools accessible and widely adopted, a skill she now wants to apply to AI. In her vision, AI is a personal tutor, a health advocate, a creative partner, and an economic equalizer. She wants AI to level the playing field for people who traditionally can’t afford expert guidance. “Once we put a personalized AI tutor on every topic at everyone’s fingertips, AI will close the gap between people who have the resources to learn and people who have historically been left behind,†she said. Her own experience with chronic illness drove home how fragmented and confusing healthcare can be. She imagines AI systems that decode medical jargon, suggest treatment options, and help patients feel in control of their health. On the economic front, she sees AI giving people the tools to start businesses or manage personal finances, without the need for specialized credentials or big upfront capital. The stakes are nothing less than who controls the future of knowledge and opportunity. If Simo’s vision succeeds, AI could act as an equalizer, letting anyone build businesses, improve health literacy, or access world-class tutoring. But if it fails or if access remains paywalled, it could further entrench inequality, putting advanced tools in the hands of the wealthy while everyone else lags behind. Critics have warned that promises of democratization often give way to premium subscriptions and corporate control. Others argue that AI itself could eliminate jobs faster than new ones are created, widening economic gaps instead of narrowing them. Simo is stepping into one of tech’s biggest ethical challenges: making AI empower the many, not the few. If she succeeds, OpenAI could become the great equalizer of the 21st century. If she fails, it could be remembered as the moment AI cemented a new Gilded Age where the rich didn’t just get richer, they got smarter, faster, and untouchable.

'Many people don't feel comfortable opening up to family or friends': OpenAI's new Applications chief makes a bold mission statement that's both revealing and scary

If you were wondering where OpenAI's vision for AI is going in the future, then a good place to start getting a feel of what the company has in store for us is the new article posted by incoming CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo. Simo doesn't start for a few weeks yet, when she'll be joining OpenAI as CEO of Applications, "helping get OpenAI's technologies into the hands of more people around the world." Her article is a pretty good summation of the benefits we can all get from AI right now, but I found some of her predictions for how AI can help by "filling a gap that often goes unfilled" could have serious implications for the future. Confusingly, OpenAI is about to have two CEOs. Sam Altman, the actual CEO of OpenAI, announced that Fidji Simo is joining as 'CEO of Applications', back in May, and emphasized that he was still in control of the company: "To strengthen our execution, I'm excited to announce Fidji Simo is joining as our CEO of Applications, reporting directly to me. I remain the CEO of OpenAI and will continue to directly oversee success across all pillars of OpenAI - Research, Compute, and Applications - ensuring we stay aligned and integrated across all areas. I will work closely with our board on making sure our non-profit has maximum positive impact. " Simo was previously at Instacart, and had already been serving on the board of OpenAI for a year. In a new article on the OpenAI website, Simo writes, "I've always considered myself a pragmatic technologist - someone who loves technology not for its own sake, but for the direct impact it can have on people's lives." Simo goes on to set out six key areas of our lives that she sees AI making the most impact in - knowledge, health, creative expression, economic freedom, time and support. Her vision starts with knowledge, where Simo notes that "people who use AI tutors learn twice as much as they do from human ones, and the gains are even bigger compared to learning in a traditional classroom". She then moves on to health, and explains how, "AI can explain lab results, decode medical jargon, offer second opinions, and help patients understand their options in plain language. It won't replace doctors, but it can finally level the playing field for patients, putting them in the driver seat of their own care." AI is often thought to be the enemy of creativity, taking opportunities away from human artists, for example, but Simo neatly dodges that issue, saying, "If AI gives everyone access to the tools to transform their ideas into images, stories, or songs, it will make the world a much richer place." However, it's her final area of AI innovation - support - that makes me raise my eyebrow most quizzically. Simo notes that "Many people don't feel comfortable opening up to family or friends, and most people don't have access to a therapist or coach they can call regularly. Even people who do have access often spend an hour a week or less with these professionals. AI coaches, on the other hand, can be available throughout every day, leverage their full understanding of all aspects of your life to help support you, and bring your subconscious patterns to your consciousness." I can see her point, but I'm also wary of a world where people begin to trust AI with their innermost thoughts, and start to shy away from talking to friends and family, or even human therapists. While I think it can be helpful for many, I worry about the power that it gives to the AI companies, who will know more and more intimate details about our personal lives. As I found out in my conversation with serial entrepreneur Simon Squibb last week, trust is going to be a key value going forward as AI levels the technological and economic playing field, so that everybody can create a product and start a company without having to invest thousands of dollars. If we put our trust in companies that are trying to make a profit (OpenAI has a complicated structure that combines a non-profit with a Public Benefit Corporation) then will we always be sure they have our best interests at heart? We've already seen how easily it was for social media to be used to influence public opinion in an election. What happens when the AI we've come to trust as our help and support structure starts accepting adverts? Currently, there are no adverts on the big AI platforms, but most of the experts I talk to think it's only a matter of time before the AI giants seek to monetize the hugely expensive systems they've created. I think that Simo's overall point that AI can be used right now to enhance many areas of our lives, democratizing access to technology and giving us opportunities we haven't had before, is valid, but there seem to be very few guardrails in place as we march towards this new AI future.

OpenAI Exec Fidji Simo on How AI Can Turn 'Ideas Into Income'

Fidji Simo, OpenAI's incoming CEO of Applications, has released a blog post laying out her vision for an AI-powered future, and outlining OpenAI's role in making that vision a reality. In May, OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman announced that he had hired Simo, who is currently wrapping up her final weeks as the CEO of Instacart, to serve as OpenAI's CEO of Applications, a newly-created role. Altman explained that OpenAI would be split into three sections: Research (responsible for creating and training new AI models), Compute (responsible for building and maintaining the infrastructure used to create AI models), and Applications (responsible for developing new products and OpenAI's more traditional business operations). Altman will continue to lead OpenAI's Research and Compute divisions, and Simo takes the reins at Applications. In a blog posted to OpenAI's website, Simo wrote that she believes AI will unlock more opportunities per person than any other technology in human history. Simo sees huge potential for AI to transform some fundamental elements of the human experience, empowering people to be smarter, healthier, richer, and happier. Take entrepreneurialism, for example. "Starting a company isn't easy," Simo wrote, adding that founding a startup in the United States costs an average of $30,000. Plus, to run a successful business, you usually have to be an expert in something. Hundreds of millions of people have business ideas, Simo wrote, but only a select few have the technical know-how and resources to actually turn their idea into an enterprise. That's all changed with AI, which Simo says "gives people the power to turn ideas into income, no matter their age, credentials, or zip code. A single person can now brainstorm, prototype, market, and launch a product with tools they control themselves even if they've never written a line of code." Simo claims to have seen this power firsthand in her 9-year-old daughter, who in a single weekend created a "fully functional website showcasing her party ideas, shared it with her peers, and started taking on 'clients.'" While exciting, Simo is clear-eyed about the disruption this change will bring to the workforce, writing that "companies will hire fewer people as existing teams will be able to do far more in the same number of hours, and some jobs will be eliminated entirely." Of course, she wrote, new jobs will also be created by this disruption, which is why it's so important to train employees to take advantage of AI now. Personally, Simo wrote that she is most energized by the potential for AI to impact healthcare. "A few years ago," Simo wrote, "I faced a complex and poorly understood chronic illness, and it became painfully clear just how fragmented and inaccessible the healthcare system can be." Simo had access to some of the best doctors in the world, but a lack of communication between those doctors left her feeling uninformed about what was happening in her own body. "I dealt with that feeling by hiring a tutor from Stanford to teach me biology and genetics and eventually founded a research institute focused on chronic illnesses," wrote Simo. "Needless to say, most people don't have the resources to take such intensive measures -- and with AI, they won't have to." In the near future, according to Simo, AI will be able to explain medical jargon and explain lab results to patients. She says that AI won't replace doctors, but will help patients better understand and maintain their personal health. Simo also opined on AI's potential to serve as a personal coach and therapist for people who otherwise couldn't afford those kinds of resources, and to help people claw back precious hours of their free time by automating time-consuming activities. "We have to be intentional about how we build and share these technologies so they lead to greater opportunity and prosperity for more people," Simo wrote. "The choices we make today will shape whether the coming transformation leads to greater empowerment for all, or greater concentration of wealth and power for the few." Simo wrote on X that her first day on the job with be Aug. 18. The final deadline for the 2025 Inc. Power Partner Awards is this Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

Fidji Simo to head OpenAI's apps division; terms AI as world's biggest opportunity engine - The Economic Times

Simo has long been an advocate of AI in general and its use cases in healthcare, having suffered a chronic illness herself. Simo was CEO at Instacart, an American grocery delivery platform, before taking up the offer from OpenAI.Fidji Simo, the incoming chief executive officer (CEO) of applications at OpenAI, said artificial intelligence (AI) will unlock more opportunities for more people than any other technology in history, in a note to the employees. Simo was CEO at Instacart, an American grocery delivery platform, before taking up the offer from OpenAI. She further believes in the potential AI has to transform society and individuals. "If we can make intelligence accessible everywhere, affordable to everyone, and easy to understand, we can drive the biggest opportunity engine the world has ever seen and help more people live better lives," she said. AI for knowledge Simo highlighted that people who use AI tutors learn twice as much as they do from human ones, enabling them to compress thousands of hours of learning into personalised insights as per the user's pace and level of understanding. In a 2024 OpenAI study, 90% of users said ChatGPT helped them "understand complex ideas more easily." "Once we put a personalised AI tutor on every topic at everyone's fingertips, AI will close the gap between people who have the resources to learn and people who have historically been left behind," she added. AI in healthcare Simo has long been passionate about AI in general and its use cases in healthcare, having suffered a chronic illness herself. Nearly nine in 10 US adults struggle to understand and use health information, which leads to bad outcomes and more than $200 billion in avoidable healthcare costs every year. She explained how online resources can help patients identify risks and get solutions. "I dealt with that feeling by hiring a tutor from Stanford to teach me biology and genetics, and eventually founded a research institute focused on chronic illnesses. Needless to say, most people don't have the resources to take such intensive measures -- and with AI, they won't have to," she said. On AI replacing jobs, she said, "AI won't replace doctors, but it can finally level the playing field for patients, putting them in the driver's seat of their own care." Exit from Instacart Fidji Simo will remain Instacart's CEO until a successor is appointed and continue to serve as chair of the board to support the leadership team. Instacart, best known for its grocery-delivery business, has continued to benefit from strong demand. Aside from its core delivery unit, Instacart has also expanded into providing technology to supermarkets. In May, it announced that it was buying Wynshop, an ecommerce platform for US grocery chains. On May 7, she addressed the employees at Instacart to inform them about the transition, stating that it was a hard decision. "This was an incredibly hard decision because I love this company. We are operating incredibly well, as our last earnings results have shown. Our strategy is working, and this team is top-notch, which makes it very hard to leave," she said. However, she will continue in the meantime till a new CEO is announced from the existing management team.

Incoming OpenAI CEO Fidji Simo seeks broader market for AI tools - The Economic Times

Simo will begin her new role on Aug. 18, an OpenAI spokesperson said. In a blog post published on the company's website on Monday, she set the tone for how she envisions the company's artificial intelligence technologies can be used by more people, rather than concentrated in the hands of the wealthy and connected. Fidji Simo, the outgoing Instacart chief executive officer headed to OpenAI, outlined her vision for the newly created role of CEO of applications ahead of her official start at the ChatGPT maker next month. Simo will begin her new role on Aug. 18, an OpenAI spokesperson said. In a blog post published on the company's website on Monday, she set the tone for how she envisions the company's artificial intelligence technologies can be used by more people, rather than concentrated in the hands of the wealthy and connected. While she did not specify a product roadmap, she reflected on how AI can be useful in six broad areas, including knowledge, health, creative expression, economic freedom, time and support. "We have to be intentional about how we build and share these technologies so they lead to greater opportunity and prosperity for more people," she wrote. "The choices we make today will shape whether the coming transformation leads to greater empowerment for all, or greater concentration of wealth and power for the few." Simo's recruitment comes at a time when OpenAI is seeking to develop a business model to support its advancements in AI. The company announced in early May that Simo, 39, will take on operational duties currently held by CEO Sam Altman, including finance and product development. This will allow Altman to focus on broader strategy, the company said at the time. Simo joined OpenAI's board in early 2024 as part of a slate of new directors installed after the brief ousting and return of Altman in late 2023. Raised in France, she has spent years in leadership roles in the tech industry. Instacart said in May that Chief Business Officer Chris Rogers will succeed Simo as CEO of the grocery delivery company on Aug. 15.