David Robinson, who led the writing of safety reports that accompanied every major model release at OpenAI, resigned from the company this week and published an essay in The Atlantic arguing that the company's "culture is broken"2,4,5.
Robinson worked on OpenAI's Safety Systems team and had previously led policy planning1. With three-and-a-half years at the company, he described himself as "among the longest-tenured employees". An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider on Friday that Robinson left last week.
What Robinson said
In his Atlantic essay, Robinson warned that AI firms are "not being nearly careful enough" about developing the technology. He framed the problem as deeper than any single regulatory fix: in his view, the debate needs to go "beyond specific rules or new laws" and address the overall culture at AI companies. Robinson also wrote that OpenAI "has thrived by trial and error (which it calls 'iterative deployment'), looking for problems and improving its guardrails" in response.
Robinson acknowledged that his departure fits a pattern, calling himself "something of a cliché": an employee at a leading AI company who issues a dire warning while resigning.
A pattern of safety departures
The Verge noted that Robinson's exit adds to a growing list of insiders who have spoken out after leaving. Business Insider's headline described the resignation as part of mounting "upheaval" on OpenAI's safety team7. TechCrunch drew a parallel to Jacob Coxon, a researcher who worked at both OpenAI and Anthropic before quitting and declaring that these companies are "gambling with our lives". TechCrunch reported that Coxon's comments led to a broader debate about AI safety, with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei unveiling a plan for more cautious AI development, and that AI executives met with President Donald Trump this week and signed what TechCrunch described as a "hastily written, non-binding pledge to implement more safety controls".
Robinson's essay, however, suggested that OpenAI's culture issues are not unique to the company but reflect those of Silicon Valley at large. Much prior reporting on OpenAI has focused on how CEO Sam Altman lost the trust of former colleagues; Robinson's critique targets a broader structural problem, according to TechCrunch's characterization.
ANALYSIS Robinson's departure is distinct from prior safety-team exits in one respect: his role centered on the public-facing safety documentation that accompanied product launches, making him a direct participant in how OpenAI communicated risk to users and regulators. His claim that the culture itself, rather than any specific policy gap, is the core problem reframes the debate away from technical governance mechanisms and toward organizational incentives.