OpenAI’s Fidji Simo moves to advisory role, citing 7-year battle with chronic illness

Fidji Simo is stepping down from her role leading OpenAI’s applications business and moving into a part-time advisory position, citing a seven-year battle with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, a chronic illness affecting the body’s autonomic nervous system.

POTS can cause symptoms including fatigue, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, headaches and fainting. In a social media post announcing the change, 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 said her immediate priority is recovery.

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. Two years after she got sick, Facebook offered her a full year of medical leave, which she turned down immediately without consideration.

She recalled that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told her at the time that she should ‘play the long game.’ Looking back, she wrote, ‘I wish I had listened,’ adding that 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.’