OpenAI safety leader David Robinson resigns

David Robinson, a leader on OpenAI's Safety Systems team, has resigned from the company. An OpenAI spokesperson told Business Insider on October 2, 2026, that Robinson departed the prior week. Robinson previously led policy planning at OpenAI and worked on safety transparency, which included developing and publishing system cards that explain model capabilities.

Robinson's exit follows other staffing changes in OpenAI's safety division. On October 1, 2026, OpenAI stated that it parted ways with three researchers for violating policies regarding sensitive information. Earlier in 2026, OpenAI safety head Johannes Heidecke also stepped down.

OpenAI has faced scrutiny after a security breach at Hugging Face and other safety incidents where it said its artificial intelligence models misbehaved. At the company's developer conference on September 29, 2026, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that safety and alignment need to stay ahead of model capabilities.

In early September 2026, Robinson wrote on social media platform X about the challenges facing the company. He noted that matters at OpenAI were changing significantly every day, but added that he did not know whether they were changing fast enough.