New Delhi, July 10 -- SAN FRANCISCO - Fidji Simo spent most of the past two months managing a relapse of a neuroimmune condition from somewhere other than OpenAI's San Francisco offices. On Thursday, she confirmed she will not return full-time.

In a staff note reported by TechCrunch and also obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Simo said her medical leave has been longer and harder than she expected, and that she will transition from her role as CEO of Applications into a part-time advisory position. The announcement landed on the same day that OpenAI launched its GPT-5.6 model family and ChatGPT Work, a productivity agent targeting enterprise clients, making Thursday one of the company's most active news days in months. Whether the timi...