Why Are AI Safety Researchers Pessimistic? Ex-OpenAI Staffer Sparks Debate

DKokotajlo · x · 2026-07-30

Former OpenAI employee Daniel Kokotajlev retweeted a post discussing the psychological shift among AI safety researchers.

The post argues that people in the AI safety community were not inherently pessimistic. Instead, the typical evolution path is: initially holding an optimistic attitude and strong interest in AI, but after deeply understanding the actual trajectory of AI development and engaging with safety arguments, they eventually became pessimists and joined the AI safety camp.

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