When Fidji Simo announced she was leaving her role as one of the most senior members of OpenAI’s leadership team after a seven-year battle with her chronic illness, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS, the news felt unexpectedly personal. My little cousin has POTS, and it’s been devastating to witness. Simo’s post said she would be focusing on how to use AI to cure these types of diseases, but I wondered if it was just another tech executive making lofty promises about AI that may never materialize.
“Do people like my cousin have any reason to have hope that AI can actually make a difference for their health?” I asked Simo when I reached out to her after the announcement. I also told her how much I admired her courage to be so open about her condition. That’s not easy for a highly scrutinized public figure. Simo was previously at Meta for a decade, where she oversaw the Facebook app, and then served as CEO of Instacart, which she brought public in 2023, before joining OpenAI in 2025.
