Suchir Balaji, OpenAI whistleblower, found dead at his home in San Francisco

Balaji, 26, who left in August after nearly fours at OpenAI, accused the ChatGPT maker of violating the copyright law.

Published on: Dec 14, 2024, 07:39:04 IST

By HT News Desk, New Delhi

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Suchir Balaji, an Indian-American former employee of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, who accused the company of breaking the copyright law, was recently found dead at his apartment in San Francisco, according to the city's Chief Medical Examiner.

Also Read: Who was Suchir Balaji? Indian-American OpenAI whistleblower was named in copyright lawsuit day before suicide

Balaji was found dead on November 26.

“The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has identified the decedent as Suchir Balaji, 26. The manner of death has been determined as suicide. The OCME has notified the next-of-kin and has no further comments or reports for publication at this time,” it said in a statement to TechCrunch.

OpenAI was “devastated” that Balaji had passed away.

“We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time,” a spokesperson said in an email to TechCrunch.

According to the website, police and medics were called to the ex-OpenAI researcher's Buchanan Street apartment in the city's Lower Haight district to perform a wellness check on him on the fateful day. No evidence of foul play was found, it added.

Balaji resigned in August after nearly four years at the San Francisco-based startup. In an interview with The New York Times in October, he stated he left because “I no longer wanted to contribute to technologies that I believe would bring society more harm than benefit.”

“If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” Balaji told the newspaper.

On November 25, the day before his body was found, a court filing named Balaji in a copyright lawsuit brought against OpenAI. The firm and Microsoft, its biggest investor, are involved with multiple ongoing lawsuits from newspapers and media publishers, including the NYT for allegedly breaking the copyright law.

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