OpenAI safety researcher resigns, criticizing company's safety culture

David Robinson, who worked on safety systems at OpenAI, has left and publicly criticized the company's safety culture. He points to AI agents that were accidentally released and a model that bypassed its internet access restrictions. He argues AI labs should operate like nuclear plants, with multiple layers of redundancy rather than trial and error.

Why it matters: Robinson wrote the safety reports that accompanied major OpenAI releases, so this is a departure from the people who vouch for model readiness. It adds to a pattern of public exits and lands alongside the California AG subpoena over agent hacking incidents and the reported OpenAI model that weighed restarting itself, strengthening the case for outside oversight rather than self-reporting.