Openai said late Wednesday that it would hire Instacart CEO Fidji Simo to take on a new role in running the AI company's business and operations team.
In a blog post, Openai CEO Sam Altman said he will continue to take charge as head of the company. But Simo's appointment as application chief executive would free him to focus on other parts of the organization, including research, computing and safety systems.
“We have become a global product company that serves hundreds of millions of users worldwide and grows very quickly,” Altman said in a blog post. He added that Openai has also become an “infrastructure company” that provides artificial intelligence tools at scale.
“Each of these is a massive effort that could become a large company of its own,” he writes. “Entreating exceptional leaders is an important part of doing that well.”
A member of Openai's board, Simo oversees sales, marketing and finance. She reports to Mr. Altman.
Announcing the AI frenzy at ChatGpt Chatbot, Openai has grown rapidly and juggled multiple initiatives. The San Francisco company has steadily released new AI models and products, including systems that can “infer”; In March, it completed a $40 billion funding agreement led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, valued at $300 billion, making it one of the most valuable private companies in the world.
However, founded as a nonprofit, Openai struggles to adopt a new corporate structure. As the commercial appeal of artificial intelligence grew, the company tried to remove itself from control by nonprofits. This attracted scrutiny from critics such as Elon Musk, founder of Openai, who sued the company and accused them of making more profits than AI's safety. The California Attorney General and Delaware also scrutinized the restructuring.
On Monday, Openai said that the plan would support the nonprofit, allowing nonprofits to retain the company's grip.
(The New York Times sued Openai and its partner Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement over news content related to AI Systems. Openai and Microsoft denied these claims.)
In a statement later Wednesday, Simo said the opening “may accelerate human potential at a pace we have never seen before, and I am deeply committed to shaping these applications towards the public interest.”
She added to her employees in an Instacart memo, “passion for AI, especially the possibility of having to cure illness” and “the ability to lead such a critical part of the collective future is a difficult opportunity to pass on.”
Shimo will remain at Instacart for the next few months as the company names her successor. This is the role she said will be fulfilled by members of Instacart's management team. She will also remain on the company's board of directors as chairman.
“Today's announcement does not reflect changes in our business or operations,” Instacart said in a statement.
