OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji’s mother alleges murder, demands FBI probe into his death

WASHINGTON: The mother of Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former OpenAI researcher who was found dead after accusing the company of violating copyright laws, alleged that her son was ‘murdered’ and demanded an FBI investigation into the matter.

Poornima Rao, the mother of Suchir Balaji, claimed that her son’s death was a “cold-blooded murder declared by authorities as suicide”. She also mentioned that a private autopsy report differed from the initial police report. Additionally, she stated that her son’s apartment had been “ransacked” and there were signs of a struggle in the bathroom that suggested he had been hit.

“We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death. Private autopsy doesn’t confirm the cause of death stated by police. Suchir’s apartment was ransacked, sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like some one hit him in bathroom based on blood spots. It’s a cold blooded mu*d*r declared by authorities as suicide. Lobbying in San Francisco city doesn’t stop us from getting justices. We demand FBi investigation”, Poornima Rao wrote on X.

Update on @suchirbalaji

We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death. Private autopsy doesn’t confirm cause of death stated by police.

Suchir’s apartment was ransacked , sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like some one hit him…

— Poornima Rao (@RaoPoornima) December 29, 2024

Elon Musk responded to the post of Suchir Balaji’s mother, saying “This doesn’t seem like a suicide”.

Suchir Balaji was found dead in his apartment in San Francisco, months after accusing OpenAI of violating laws while developing ChatGPT, Fox News reported. His death was ruled a suicide after the San Francisco Police Department found no evidence of ‘foul play’.

On October 24, before his death, Suchir Balaji expressed his skepticism about the “fair use” of generative artificial intelligence products. “I recently participated in a NYT story about fair use and generative AI, and why I’m skeptical “fair use” would be a plausible defense for a lot of generative AI products”, he wrote on X.

“To give some context: I was at OpenAI for nearly 4 years and worked on ChatGPT for the last 1.5 of them. I 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. I’ve written up the more detailed reasons for why I believe this in my post. Obviously, I’m not a lawyer, but I still feel like it’s important for even non-lawyers to understand the law — both the letter of it, and also why it’s actually there in the first place,” he added.

Suchir Balaji also raised concerns about the company breaking copyright laws in an interview with The New York Times. He was named in a copyright lawsuit filed against the company by The New York Times, which alleged that Microsoft and OpenAI used millions of published articles to inform their technology and began competing with the outlet as a result, Fox News reported. (ANI)