There is a bit more intrigue around the tragic death late last month of former OpenAI researcher Suchir Balaji, who was found dead in his Lower Haight

Parents of OpenAI Whistleblower Don't Believe He Died By Suicide, Order Second Autopsy

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2024-12-27 18:00:06

There is a bit more intrigue around the tragic death late last month of former OpenAI researcher Suchir Balaji, who was found dead in his Lower Haight apartment of an apparent suicide.

Balaji had only recently become a whistleblower about OpenAI and its use of copyrighted material to train its ChatGPT AI model, speaking to the New York Times in an interview published in October. In addition to the legal issues around consuming copyrighted material, Balaji told the Times it was also "not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole."

On November 26, two days before Thanksgiving, Balaji was found dead in his apartment on Buchanan Street. The medical examiner deemed it a death by suicide, and the SFPD has said there is "no evidence of foul play."

Balaji's mother, Poornima Ramarao, who lives in the Bay Area, tells Bay Area News Group this week that she and her husband are "demanding a thorough investigation" into their son's death. They do not believe he would have taken his own life, and they say there had been zero indication in his mental state that this could be a possibility.

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