# Human Values Are a Beautiful Cacophony by David Robinson > “I worry that we do not have a coherent concept beneath the word ‘aligned.’ OpenAI’s accounts of its work often relied upon huge abstractions such as ‘give society time to get ready’ or ‘benefit all of humanity,’ but society is not one thing and human values are not one set of values. They are a cacophony—beautiful, but messy.” > **— 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]], **50:27** — 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 coding agents, recursive self-improvement and the erosion of human inspectability. 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/We Cannot Un-Strike the Match|We Cannot Un-Strike the Match]] - **Article:** [[articles/Safety Discourse Is Transition Discourse|Safety Discourse Is Transition Discourse]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Immediate AI Risk Is the Public|The Immediate AI Risk Is the Public]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/David Robinson|David Robinson]] - [[wiki/Alignment Problem|Alignment Problem]] - [[wiki/Human Values|Human Values]] - [[wiki/AI Governance|AI Governance]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “I worry that we do not have a coherent concept beneath the word ‘aligned.’ OpenAI’s accounts of its work often relied upon huge abstractions such as ‘give society time to get ready’ or ‘benefit all of humanity,’ but society is not one thing and human values are not one set of values. They are a cacophony—beautiful, but messy.” — David Robinson, The Ezra Klein Show, October 7, 2026 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-david-robinson-human-values-are-a-beautiful-cacophony ```