Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher who recently spoke out against the company's practices, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on November 26. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed the cause of death as suicide. He was 26 years old.
Police responded to a wellbeing check at Balaji's Lower Haight residence around 1 p.m., where they discovered his body. Officials stated there was no evidence of foul play.
Balaji had made headlines in October after publicly accusing OpenAI of violating U.S. copyright laws in developing ChatGPT, their widely-used artificial intelligence program. He argued that the company's practice of gathering training data from across the internet violated fair use laws and posed risks to content creators.
"This is not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole," Balaji told The New York Times in his final interview. He had left OpenAI in August 2023 after nearly four years with the company.
A Cupertino native and UC Berkeley computer science graduate, Balaji initially joined OpenAI in 2020, driven by AI's potential to solve major challenges like disease and aging. However, his perspective shifted while working on data collection for GPT-4, leading to his eventual departure and public statements against the company's methods.
His insights were expected to play a key role in ongoing lawsuits against OpenAI, including cases brought by major news organizations like The New York Times. These lawsuits allege that OpenAI illegally used copyrighted material to train ChatGPT.
OpenAI released a statement saying, "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time."
Balaji's family has requested privacy during this period of mourning.