A former OpenAI employee who criticised the company's practices is found dead in his flat

Suchir Balaji, 26, a former OpenAI employee, was found dead in his flat in San Francisco, according to the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be suicide.

Here's What We Know

Balaji's body was discovered on 26 November at his Buchanan Street flat. Police and paramedics arrived on the scene to check on the health of the former OpenAI researcher and the initial investigation found no evidence of a violent death.

Balaji was an OpenAI employee for almost 4 years and during that time he worked on various versions of ChatGPT, including GPT-3, GPT-4, and the latest model for o1 reasoning. He later left the company when he realised that technology was doing more harm than good. His main concern was the use of copyright infringing data, which he felt was damaging the internet. In October, Balaji expressed his concerns about copyright infringement by OpenAI in an interview with The New York Times.

OpenAI and Microsoft are currently involved in several copyright infringement lawsuits. Balaji was one of the few employees who openly opposed the company's methods. His death sparked a wave of condolences on social media, including from OpenAI employees.

Source: The Mercury News