AI chatbots have been under scrutiny for mental health risks that come with users developing relationships with the tech or using them for therapy or support during acute mental health crises. As companies respond to user and expert criticism, one of OpenAI’s newest leaders says the issue is at the forefront of her work.
This May, Fidji Simo, a Meta alum, was hired as OpenAI’s CEO of Applications. Tasked with managing anything outside CEO Sam Altman’s scope of research and computing infrastructure for the company’s AI models, she detailed a stark contrast between working at the tech company headed by Mark Zuckerberg and one by Altman in a Wired interview published Monday.
“I would say the thing that I don’t think we did well at Meta is actually anticipating the risks that our products would create in society,” Simo told Wired. “At OpenAI, these risks are very real.”
Meta did not respond immediately to Fortune’s request for comment.
Simo worked for a decade at Meta, all while it was still known as Facebook, from 2011 to July 2021. For her last two-and-a-half years, she headed the Facebook app.
