ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has broken its silence over the suspicious death of its former employee-turned-whistleblower, Suchir Balaji. In a statement issued on Friday, January 17, nearly two months after the Indian-origin artificial intelligence researcher was found dead in his home in San Francisco, OpenAI said the company is still heartbroken by his passing.
"Suchir was a valued member of our team, and we are still heartbroken by his passing. We continue to feel his loss deeply," OpenAI said in a statement issued on X.
Suchir had worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before resigning over ethical concerns in August 2024.
The 26-year-old was found dead under mysterious circumstances less than a month after raising concerns over the unethical use of online data by OpenAI.
Though the authorities have ruled that Balaji died of suicide, his family has raised suspicions and claimed that he was murdered.
"We have reached out to the San Francisco Police Department and have offered our assistance if it's needed. Law enforcement are the right authorities in this situation, and we trust them to continue sharing updates as needed. Out of respect, we wouldn't be commenting further," the OpenAI statement said.
Many on social media responded to OpenAI's statement, calling it haphazard and wondering why it took the company 51 days to respond to such a serious matter.
His mother, Poornima Rao, alleged that OpenAI killed her son to "hide something they want nobody to know." According to her, Balaji had documents against the ChatGPT maker and knew what they were up to.
Even OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk had expressed doubts about Balaji's death, saying, "This doesn't seem like a suicide."
In a blog posted on his website in October 2024, Balaji had claimed that OpenAI's use of data to train ChatGPT violated copyright laws.
For more news and current affairs?from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.