OpenAI whistleblower, 26, dies by suicide

A former employee of artificial intelligence company OpenAI, who alleged that the company’s programs violated copyright, was found dead of an apparent suicide in his San Francisco apartment last month, officials shared Friday.

The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identified the deceased as 26-year-old Suchir Balaji, who spoke out against his company’s practices in an October article. The New York Times. He was found dead two days before Thanksgiving.

“The manner of death has been determined to be suicide,” the medical examiner’s office said. “The OCME has notified next of kin and has no further comment or reports for publication at this time.”

The Mercury news was the first to report the death.

Following the news, an OpenAI spokesperson said TechCrunch: “We are devastated to hear this incredibly sad news today and our thoughts go out to Suchir’s loved ones at this difficult time.”

OpenAI’s best-known product is ChatGPT, a chatbot launched in 2022 that gives people information it collects from data on the internet. When Balaji spoke to the Times in August about his decision to leave the company, he warned that “this is not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole.”

Balaji also spoke out about the company on social media.

“I worked at OpenAI for almost four years and worked on ChatGPT for the last year and a half,” he says wrote. “I initially didn’t know much about copyright, fair use, etc., but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits filed against GenAI companies. As I tried to understand the problem better, I ultimately concluded that fair use seems a fairly unlikely defense for many generative AI products, for the fundamental reason that they can create substitutes that compete with the data they’ve trained. on.”

The Times is among those who have sued OpenAI for using copyrighted material to train systems like ChatGPT. The information in Balaji’s possession was expected to play an integral role in these lawsuits, The Mercury News reported.

If you or someone you know needs help, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org for mental health care. Additionally, you can find local mental health and crisis resources at dontcallthepolice.com. Outside the US you can visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention.