Opinion | ‘This Is Nuts.’ An OpenAI Insider Explains Why He Quit.

This is an edited transcript of “The Ezra Klein Show.” You can listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts.

Last week, news broke that David Robinson, who had been leading safety transparency efforts at OpenAI, had quit his job at the company because he believes its technology is not safe.

Robinson is an interesting figure. He didn’t come out of the Silicon Valley Bay Area hothouse — he’s more of a recognizable Washington, D.C., figure. He’s a Rhodes scholar. He formed a civil rights nonprofit. He got a law degree at Yale. He worked in policy. He advised the Biden White House. He was interested in the intersection of technology and justice.

When he joined OpenAI, he thought this whole set of worries about safety risk and extinction was kind of nuts. But three years later, he’s not so sure. What he is sure about is that OpenAI does not have the culture of safety necessary to protect the world from what it is building. And it’s not just OpenAI — he thinks this is a problem endemic to the A.I. industry.

So here, in his first interview since leaving OpenAI, he tells me why.

(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft claiming copyright infringement. The companies have denied those claims.)

Ezra Klein: David Robinson, welcome to the show.

David Robinson: Glad to be here.

Last week you quit OpenAI. Tell me what you did there and why you’re quitting.