San Francisco police found Open AI whistleblower Suchir Balaji, 26, dead in his Lower Haight apartment Nov. 26, SiliconValley.com reported on Friday. Police said there is “no evidence of foul play.”
“The manner of death has been determined to be suicide,” David Serrano Sewell, director of the office of the city’s chief medical examiner, told The Standard by email.
Balaji, a former researcher for the company, accused OpenAI of using copyrighted material to train ChatGPT shortly after he quit the company in August. The New York Times profiled Balaji in a story focused on his whistleblowing in October.
Multiple lawsuits against Open AI are expected to present information Balaji unearthed as key evidence.
Officers went to Balaji’s at 1:15 p.m. on Nov. 26 for a wellness check, SFPD confirmed to The Standard.
“Officers and medics arrived on scene and located a deceased adult male from what appeared to be a suicide,” SFPD said. “No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.”
In Balaji’s final post on X, he brought up the New York Times article that quoted him.
“I recently participated in a NYT story about fair use and generative AI, and why I’m skeptical ‘fair use’ would be a plausible defense for a lot of generative AI products,” Balaji wrote.
Upon news of his death, people began replying to the thread with condolences.
If you or somebody you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Or go here for more San Francisco resources.