OpenAI whistleblower Indian-American Suchir Balaji found dead in San Francisco

Mangalore Today News Network

San Francisco, December 14, 2024: 26-year-old Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher and whistleblower who raised concerns about the artificial intelligence company’s practices, was found dead at his residence in San Francisco, according to reports.

The officials found him dead in his Buchanan Street flat on November 26, the San Francisco Police said. The police arrived at his apartment after his friends expressed concerns over his well-being, and found him dead.

He was confirmed dead that day and the news of his demise has come up now.

The medical examiner has not revealed the cause of Balaji’s death, however, the police said that at present, there is “no evidence of foul play", according to reports.

His role and knowledge were considered crucial in legal proceedings against OpenAI. Balaji had publicly claimed three months before his death that OpenAI had breached copyright legislation in the development of ChatGPT.

What were his allegations?

The late 2022 launch sparked a wave of legal challenges from writers, programmers, and journalists, who accused the company of unlawfully utilising their copyrighted content to train its program, thereby boosting its valuation to over $150 billion.

Balaji said in an interview published on October 23 in New York Times that OpenAI was impacting businesses and entrepreneurs negatively whose information was being used to train ChatGPT.

“If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company. This is not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole," he told the outlet.