Suchir Balaji, Indian-American OpenAI Whistleblower Commits Suicide at San Francisco Home

New Delhi: An Indian-American OpenAI whistleblower, Suchir Balaji, who worked at OpenAI till August 2024, was found dead in his apartment in San Francisco. It is suspected to be a case of suicide. Elon Musk has also reacted to Balaji's death.

Indian-American OpenAI Whistleblower Found Dead in San Francisco Home

Suchir Balaji, a 24-year-old Indian-origin American boy, was found dead in his apartment in San Francisco's Buchanan Street on November 26. According to the cops, there is no evidence of foul play and it appears to be a case of suicide. A spokesperson with the San Francisco Police Department told a leading tech site, “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.”

Suchir Balaji Found Dead, Elon Musk Reacts

Billionaire Elon Musk, who was formerly associated with OpenAI, has given a cryptic reaction to the death of Suchir Balaji, the OpenAI whistleblower who was found dead in his apartment. Musk, who has a feud with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, reacted to this news with a ‘Hmm’.

Suchir Balaji's suspected suicide comes a couple of months after his allegation on OpenAI that the company was violating copyright laws. In a statement on ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter), Suchir Balaji had said, “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 (sic).”

Who is Suchir Balaji, Indian-Origin OpenAI Whistleblower Found Dead?

An Indian-origin boy, Suchir Balaji had pursued Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley and while he was in college, he interned at OpenAI and Scale AI and eventually post college, he began working with OpenAI from 2020 till August 2024. In an interview with NYT, Suchir Balaji had said that he decided to leave the company because he realised that the technology would bring more harm than good to the society.

A day after Suchir Balaji was found dead, he was reportedly named in a copyright lawsuit against the startup in a court filing. Reacting to his sudden demise, an OpenAI spokesperson said, “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.”