Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former researcher at OpenAI, was found deceased in his San Francisco apartment.
Balaji had been a critic of OpenAI’s practices, alleging that the company had violated U.S. copyright law during the development of its popular ChatGPT chatbot.
According to David Serrano Sewell, executive director of San Francisco’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, “The manner of death has been determined to be suicide.”
Sewell also confirmed that Balaji’s next of kin had been notified.
The San Francisco Police Department revealed that on November 26, officers were dispatched to an apartment on Buchanan Street to conduct a well-being check.
Upon arrival, they discovered the deceased body of an adult male, with no evidence of foul play detected during the initial investigation.
In October, The New York Times published an exposé detailing Balaji’s concerns about OpenAI’s practices.
“If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” Balaji was quoted as saying.
He firmly believed that ChatGPT and similar chatbots would ultimately destroy the commercial viability of individuals and organizations that create digital data and content used to train AI systems.
A spokesperson for OpenAI confirmed Balaji’s passing.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
OpenAI is currently involved in legal disputes with numerous publishers, authors, and artists over the alleged use of copyrighted material for AI training data.
A lawsuit filed by news outlets last December seeks to hold OpenAI and its principal backer, Microsoft, accountable for billions of dollars in damages.
In response to these allegations, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated at an event organized by Bloomberg in Davos earlier this year, “We actually don’t need to train on their data… I think this is something that people don’t understand. Any one particular training source, it doesn’t move the needle for us that much.”
