'We continue to feel his loss deeply,' OpenAI breaks silence on whistleblower Suchir Balaji's death
Suchir Balaji had worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before resigning over ethical concerns in August 2024. He was found dead under mysterious circumstances less than a month after raising concerns over the unethical use of online data by OpenAI.
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.
CREDIT: AP
Suchir was a valued member: OpenAI
"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.
Death of Suchir Balaji
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.
OpenAI on investigation into Balaji's death
"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.
¡ª OpenAI Newsroom (@OpenAINewsroom) January 16, 2025
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.
Calling Suchir a ¡®valued team member¡¯ hardly does justice to his impact. @johnschulman2 himself credited Suchir as a top contributor at OpenAI, whose groundbreaking work was essential to the advancements behind ChatGPT and more. https://t.co/sywWdpFOiS
¡ª Suchir | Justice Movement (@SuchirJustice) January 16, 2025
CREDIT: REUTERS
Allegations by Suchir Balaji's family
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.
How do I bring out cover up of crime scene investigation by the CAI he brought by our attorney? Will FBI look into this ? Will CSI lose his license?
¡ª Poornima Rao (@RaoPoornima) January 16, 2025
When evidence is obvious how can he ignore and tell against our interests? This is another corruption in state where state govt¡
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.
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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