- Suchir Balaji, who was a researcher at OpenAI, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment last month at the age of 26. Earlier this year, he went public with his concerns about copyright violations at the startup.
Former OpenAI researcher Suchir Balaji, who left the startup earlier this year and voiced concerns about copyright violations, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment last month at the age of 26, according to reports.
San Francisco’s office of the chief medical examiner told CNBC that the manner of death was determined to be a suicide. The San Francisco Police Department also confirmed to CNBC that officers were called to the apartment Nov. 26 for a “well-being check” and found no evidence of foul play.
The news was first reported by the San Jose Mercury News late Friday.
“We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time,” OpenAI said in a statement.
Balaji left OpenAI in August after nearly four years there and told the New York Times in October that the company’s use of copyrighted data violated the law, adding that chatbots like ChatGPT were harmful to the internet.
At the time he said he had not taken a new job and was working on “personal projects.”
“If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” Balaji told the Times, which is suing OpenAI along with other publishers over the use of copyrighted material in the training of its AI model.
The company has disputed the claims, saying it built its AI models with publicly available data, while observing “fair use” principles and widely accepted legal precedents.
“We view this principle as fair to creators, necessary for innovators, and critical for U.S. competitiveness,” OpenAI told the Times in October.
While growing up in Cupertino, Calif., AI captured Balaji’s imagination in 2013, when the startup DeepMind unveiled its AI technology that learned to play video games. In 2020, he joined OpenAI after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley.
“I thought that AI was a thing that could be used to solve unsolvable problems, like curing diseases and stopping aging,” he told the Times. “I thought we could invent some kind of scientist that could help solve them.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 or 1-800-273-8255.
