OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji's death in San Francisco: 5 things about passing of Indian-origin ChatGPT critic

Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former OpenAI researcher, who had voiced concerns over the company's practices involving artificial intelligence (AI) was found dead at his San Francisco residence, reports said. The Indian-origin whistle blower's demise on November 26 has rocked the tech and privacy rights fraternity.

Balaji questioned the data that OpenAI trained its models on and voiced concerns about OpenAI breaking copyright law. As things stand here are five things that we know so far about the young whistleblower's unfortunate passing. 

Who was Suchir Balaji? Suchir Balaji worked for Open AI for four years before quitting in October. He began his career as an intern while in college, and later got to work with GPT-4, reasoning team with o1, and post-training for ChatGPT, Hindustan Times said citing the late man's LinkedIn profile. 

Balaji was a computer science alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley.

What did Suchir Balaji do to become a whistleblower? Three months ago, Balaji publicly claimed OpenAI had breached US copyright legislation in developing ChatGPT. 

Balaji told a prominent US media that OpenAI was negatively impacting businesses and entrepreneurs whose information was utilised to train ChatGPT, the Times Of India pointed out. This put OpenAI further on the back foot as it was facing several legal challenges from writers, programmers and journalists, who alleged the company unlawfully used their copyrighted content to develop its programme.

“...initially didn’t know much about copyright, fair use, etc. but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits filed against GenAI companies. When I tried to understand the issue better, I eventually came to the conclusion that fair use seems like a pretty implausible defense for a lot of generative AI products, for the basic reason that they can create substitutes that compete with the data they’re trained on,” reports claimed him as saying on X in October. 

How did Suchir Balaji die? The youngster's lifeless body was recovered from his Buchanan Street apartment in Lower Haight district on November 26. It was officers who arrived at his doorsteps to perform a wellness check that made the discovery, the HT report said. Balaji's pals and colleagues had expressed concern over his well-being, reports said. 

San Francisco police have said they have found no hints of any foul play in Balaji's passing. According to media reports, the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner maintains that he died by suicide. “The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has identified the decedent as Suchir Balaji, 26, of San Francisco. The manner of death has been determined to be suicide... The OCME has notified the next-of-kin and has no further comment or reports for publication at this time,” a statement to Tech Crunch reportedly said. 

What was Suchir Balaji's latest whereabouts? On November 25, a court filing named Balaji in a copyright lawsuit brought against Open AI, Tech Crunch said in a report. As part of a good faith compromise, OpenAI agreed to search Balaji’s custodial file related to the copyright concerns he had recently raised, the report added.

Did Open AI respond to Suchir Balaji's passing? Yes. “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,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement.

(Suicide is not a solution to any problem. Seek the help of mental health experts if you are in distress. Call the ‘DISHA’ Helpline while having such thoughts. Toll-free helpline number: 1056, 0471-2552056)