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

OpenAI’s incoming CEO of functions, Fidji Simo, despatched her first notice to workers on Monday, telling workers the instruments they’re growing “will unlock extra alternatives for extra individuals than some other expertise in historical past.”“If we get this proper, AI may give everybody extra energy than ever,” Simo wrote, hanging a hyper-optimistic tone, in accordance with a replica of the memo seen by WIRED. “However I additionally notice these alternatives received’t magically seem on their very own.”Simo at present works because the CEO of Instacart. Beforehand, she spent a decade at Meta, the place she went from being a product supervisor on the corporate’s information feed to the top of product for the Fb app. For the previous 12 months, Simo has been a member of OpenAI’s board of administrators. In her memo, Simo stated she’ll be beginning her function as an OpenAI government “in a number of weeks.” She’ll report on to CEO Sam Altman.Simo’s main function shall be to steer the startup’s enterprise and operational groups, in accordance with Altman’s announcement concerning the rent in Could. She’ll be accountable for translating OpenAI’s analysis into viable merchandise like ChatGPT, the API (which builders use to construct their very own instruments atop OpenAI’s expertise), and enterprise instruments—and securing high-profile enterprise partnerships.Within the memo, Simo outlines her considering on how AI will influence data, well being, artistic expression, financial freedom, time, and assist. She promotes a number of widespread concepts that paint a rosy image of AI: customized AI tutors, higher well being information, extra alternatives for artistic expression, effectivity positive factors from automation, and AI-powered emotional assist (a hotly debated matter).“My enterprise coach Katia has been transformative to my profession, and I’ve joked along with her over time that everybody wants a ‘Katia of their pocket,’” Simo wrote. “Personalised teaching has clearly been a privilege reserved for a number of, however now with ChatGPT, it may be accessible to many.”The memo reads like a mission assertion, not only for the Functions division, however for OpenAI’s broader guess: that it will probably construct instruments that really feel as private and indispensable as a search engine or a smartphone. Within the memo, Simo positions OpenAI’s merchandise as the nice equalizer that knocks down society’s limitations to data, revenue, and emotional readability—although whether or not it can really achieve this stays to be seen.“AI can compress hundreds of hours of studying into customized insights delivered in plain language, on the tempo that fits us, aware of our particular stage of understanding,” Simo writes. “It doesn’t simply reply questions—it teaches us to ask higher ones. And it helps us develop confidence in areas that after felt opaque or intimidating, rising each personally and professionally.”The memo additionally hints at OpenAI’s imaginative and prescient for emotional companions. Within the closing part, Simo writes that AI coaches “will be accessible all through day-after-day, leverage their full understanding of all points of your life to assist assist you, and convey your unconscious patterns to your consciousness.”That concept goes hand-in-hand with the rumored {hardware} gadget OpenAI is creating with famed designer Jony Ive, which The Wall Avenue Journal reported shall be “totally conscious of a consumer’s environment and life.” Altman hasn’t shied away from flat-out saying the corporate hopes to construct an AI much like the film Her, the place a lonely man recent out of a failed marriage turns to a digital companion named Samantha. That, in fact, has additionally gotten Altman into sizzling water, since critics notice that the movie is extra of a cautionary story than a enterprise alternative.The memo was very on model for an OpenAI government: optimistic and based mostly largely on future guarantees. Whereas Altman, Simo’s boss, works to coordinate among the extra futuristic concepts, like Stargate and synthetic normal intelligence, Simo will work to pair the startup’s difficult analysis into actual instruments for customers.“If AI might help individuals really perceive themselves, it might be one of many largest presents we may ever obtain,” Simo writes.Replace: 7/21/2025 2:45 PM EDT: Wired has clarified that Fidji Simo continues to be Instacart’s CEO, and can formally be a part of OpenAI subsequent month.