Even Whistleblowers Have PR Firms Now

David Robinson led the writing of the safety reports behind OpenAI's biggest launches. This week he quit and wrote in The Atlantic that the company's "culture is broken." Labs, he argued, should run "like nuclear-power plants or busy airports," with layers of redundancy.

Buried in the essay was a detail I couldn't stop thinking about. Robinson disclosed that he'd hired a PR firm, Spitfire Strategies. He's not alone. The New York Post reported that another firm helped book interviews for former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon after his warning in September.

I run a PR firm, so take this for what it's worth: that's a big shift. The departing safety researcher used to be one voice against a company with a comms department. Now both sides show up with professional help, a message, and a media plan. OpenAI's spokesperson answered on the record.

If you lead an AI company, assume the next person who leaves with concerns will have counsel and a publicist. That's not a threat. It's the new baseline. The companies that come through it well will be the ones whose public record already answers the criticism, with real safety reports, real pause decisions and real names attached.

And if you're the one leaving? Robinson did it right in one respect. He disclosed the firm in the piece itself. Readers trust you more when you tell them who's helping.