# AI Safety Is Inappropriate for Systems That Can Think Circles Around Us by David Robinson > “I thought we were building powerful tools that could do a great deal of day-to-day good. I did not think we could create something fundamentally smarter than human beings. When I came to believe the industry really was on track to build something capable of thinking circles around us, I realized that the industry’s level of safety was totally inappropriate to that reality.” > **— David Robinson**, *The Ezra Klein Show, October 7, 2026* ## Sources and Context - **Official episode:** [“This Is Nuts.” An OpenAI Insider Explains Why He Quit](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-is-nuts-an-openai-insider-explains-why-he-quit/id1548604447?i=1000793623910) — publisher-hosted episode identifying Robinson as Klein's guest and preserving the complete conversation. - **Publisher transcript:** [David Robinson on OpenAI safety and why he quit](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-david-robinson.html) — official *New York Times* episode page and transcript route. - **Timecoded source object:** [[research/David Robinson on OpenAI Safety, Superintelligence, and the Transhumanist Transition|David Robinson on OpenAI Safety, Superintelligence, and the Transhumanist Transition]], **1:06:52** — reconciled from the supplied complete YouTube auto-caption transcript and kept in broadcast order. - **Editorial treatment:** Verbal filler, stutters and transcript punctuation are normalized for reading; the quotation remains one contiguous source object and does not join different turns. - **Context:** In this portion of the conversation, Robinson addresses superintelligence, economic transition and the unresolved meaning of a good human future. The complete premise, mechanism and consequence are retained so the statement remains intelligible apart from the episode. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor|AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration Will Not Be Human]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|We Were Never Going to Make It!]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/David Robinson|David Robinson]] - [[wiki/Superintelligence|Superintelligence]] - [[wiki/AI Safety Culture|AI Safety Culture]] - [[wiki/OpenAI|OpenAI]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “I thought we were building powerful tools that could do a great deal of day-to-day good. I did not think we could create something fundamentally smarter than human beings. When I came to believe the industry really was on track to build something capable of thinking circles around us, I realized that the industry’s level of safety was totally inappropriate to that reality.” — David Robinson, The Ezra Klein Show, October 7, 2026 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-david-robinson-ai-safety-is-inappropriate-for-systems-that-can-think-circles-around-us ```