Death of OpenAI Whistleblower Stirs Internet With Controvesy

Suchir Balaji, the OpenAI whistleblower was found dead on 26 November 2024. His mother has refuted the claims that his son died of suicide, alleging that he was killed in cold blood.

This came barely a month after his interview with The New York Times, where he said that OpenAI (ChatGpt parent company) was involved in illegal practices in training ChatGpt. Balaji was part of the team that organized the data used to develop ChatGpt. He alleged that OpenAI was using copyrighted material to train its AI model which infringes the copyright laws and goes against the fair use practices.

Balaji was born to an Indian-American family in 1998. He began his tech journey at an early age where he began coding at the age of 11 and built his first computer at the age of 13. At 17, Balaji was hired at Quora. He joined University of California, Berkeley where he won many accolades for his cutting-edge computer skills between 2017 and 2021.  In 2018 he joined OpenAI as an intern at the time the company was non-profit. 

It’s believed that Balaji had fallen in love with the idea of using artificial intelligence to help humanity, thus joining OpenAI when it was still a non-profit organization. However, in 2022, things changed when ChatGpt was launched with the aim of making profit. It was at this point when Balaji became unhappy with OpenAI and quit in 2024. 

He believed AI was harming humanity and later came out in October to speak on how OpenAi is gathering information. That is the time he was labeled as “OpenAI whistleblower” for exposing OpenAI for allegedly using copyrighted material to train ChatGpt.

On November 21, Balaji is believed to have disappeared and his phone went off. His mother Poornima Rao became worried and called the police to accompany her to his apartment where he was found dead. Police said Balaji died of suicide but his parents were not convinced.

They sought for private autopsy which his mother claims that it revealed Balaji didn’t die of suicide. They suspected foul play, adding that his apartment was ransacked and there were signs of struggle prior to his death.

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The mother of 26-year-old technophile took to X (formerly Twitter) claiming that her son was “murdered in cold blood” rubbishing the authority’s claim that he died of suicide. She further demanded for an FBI investigation into her son’s demise.

“We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on the cause of death. Private autopsy doesn’t confirm cause of death stated by police. Suchir apartment was ransacked, sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like someone hit him in the bathroom based on the blood spots. It’s cold blood m*rd*r declared by authorities as suicide. Lobbying in SF {San Francisco} doesn’t stop us from getting justices. We demand FBI investigation,” Balaji’s mother said. 

Elon Musk has backed Rao’s claims saying that the death of Balaji does not appear to be suicide. It’s worth noting that OpenAI was founded by Elon Musk and current OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, before Musk leaving the company in 2018. Musk had raised concerns about OpenAI profitability. 

In March 2024, Elon Musk filed a lawsuit on OpenAI alleging that the company had changed its direction from a non-profit to more for-profit despite its agreement to develop AI to benefit the public.

OpenAI spokesperson said they were devastated with the news of Balaji’s death and promised to “offer full support to the family”.

The death of Balaji has sparked a controversy on social media with many questioning how the geek died. His father, Balagi Ramamurthy is reported to have been the last person he spoke to before his disappearance and he said that his son had plans to visit them in January, adding that he was depressed.