He criticized ChatGPT practices: Mysterious death of OpenAI whistleblower

He worked for OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Then he left the company and publicly spoke out about allegedly illegal practices. Now Suchir Balaji is dead.

Balaji was found in his San Francisco apartment on November 26th. Friends had asked the police to check on him. They were obviously worried about their friend. A forensic pathologist asked loudly „BBC“ established that Balaji committed suicide.

Balaji becomes a Whistleblower

The AI ​​scientist worked for OpenAI for four years, helping to… AI Assistants Develop ChatGPT. The New York Times reports that he initially didn’t think about whether his company would be allowed to use the vast amounts of data it fed ChatGPT with.

But then he started asking himself questions about it more often. He finally left the company in August 2024.

He concluded that OpenAI’s use of copyrighted data violates the law and that technologies like ChatGPT are harming the Internet. “If you believe what I believe, you just have to leave the company,” he said.

▶︎ His point: ChatGPT and other chatbots destroyed the economic viability of people, companies and internet services that created the data used to train the programs. “This is not a sustainable model for the Internet ecosystem as a whole,” he told the NYT.

OpenAI responds to criticism

OpenAI said in a statement: “We build our models based on publicly available data, in a manner that is protected by fair use and related principles, and supported by long-standing and widely accepted legal precedents.”

This principle is seen as fair to creators, necessary for innovators and crucial for the competitiveness of the world USA.

Now Balaji is dead. It is completely unclear whether his death had anything to do with his criticism of OpenAI and the AI ​​world – but a few months after his termination, he still appears in a mysterious light.

A spokesperson for the company told CNBC News that they were “devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today, and our condolences are with Suchir’s loved ones at this difficult time.”

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