# Superintelligence Is Being Built Without a Vision of the Good by David Robinson > “Whether human beings should create superintelligence depends on what superintelligence becomes, and we do not know what it will become. From the beginning of my time at OpenAI, I would ask what a good future looked like and where we were trying to go. People who were otherwise proud and confident would say that was above their pay grade, that people would figure it out or that the future should become whatever people wanted. The sense of the good beneath the project felt impoverished.” > **— 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]], **1:06:03** — 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/Human Values|Human Values]] - [[wiki/AI Governance|AI Governance]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Whether human beings should create superintelligence depends on what superintelligence becomes, and we do not know what it will become. From the beginning of my time at OpenAI, I would ask what a good future looked like and where we were trying to go. People who were otherwise proud and confident would say that was above their pay grade, that people would figure it out or that the future should become whatever people wanted. The sense of the good beneath the project felt impoverished.” — David Robinson, The Ezra Klein Show, October 7, 2026 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-david-robinson-superintelligence-is-being-built-without-a-vision-of-the-good ```