OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment from apparent suicide attempt

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

A former OpenAI employee and whistleblower, Suchir Balaji, was recently found dead in his apartment in San Francisco, California.

The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has identified Balaji, 26, as the deceased person, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The manner of death has been ruled suicide.

The medical examiner said it had notified Balaji’s family.

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Balaji was found dead in his Buchanan Street apartment on November 26, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department told the outlet. First responders were called to his home to perform a wellness check, and no evidence of foul play was found during the initial probe.

“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,” a spokesperson for OpenAI told Fox News Digital.

This comes after Balaji, an AI researcher, raised concerns about OpenAI breaking copyright law in an interview with The New York Times in October.

Balaji resigned from OpenAI after working there for nearly four years when he learned the technology would bring more harm than good to society, he told the newspaper, noting that his main concern was the way the company allegedly used copyright data, stating that he believed its practices were damaging to the internet.

“I was at OpenAI for nearly 4 years and worked on ChatGPT for the last 1.5 of them,” Balaji wrote in October on the social media platform X. “I initially didn’t know much about copyright, fair use, etc. but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits filed against GenAI companies.”

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“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,” his post continued.

OpenAI and Microsoft are currently facing several lawsuits from media outlets who accuse OpenAI of breaking copyright law.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the medical examiner and San Francisco Police.

Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.