Suchir Balaji, an OpenAI whistleblower, has been found dead inside his apartment here, according to multiple reports.
In October, the 26-year-old AI researcher raised serious concerns about Sam Altman-run chatGPT maker OpenAI "breaking copyright law".
According to the San Jose Mercury News, Balaji was found dead inside his Buchanan Street apartment, as confirmed by San Francisco Police and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
The medical examiner's office concluded the manner of death as suicide and police officials this week said there is "currently, no evidence of foul play."
"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," a spokesperson was quoted as saying in reports.
The next-of-kin have also been informed by the OCME, and the agency is not ready to make further comment or report at this juncture, according to the spokesperson.
Balaji quit OpenAI after working with the company for nearly four years after he realized the technology would cause more harm to society, according to Balaji as told to The New York Times.
We are saddened to hear of this very sad news today and our thoughts are with Suchir's family and loved ones during this tough time," said an OpenAI spokesperson.
In October, Balaji said in a post on X: "I was at OpenAI for nearly 4 years and worked on ChatGPT for the last 1.5 of them. I initially didn't know much about copyright, fair use, etc. but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits 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 defence 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," he further posted.
Balaji grew up in Cupertino, California before attending the University of California, Berkeley to study computer science.
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