OpenAI whistleblower found dead in apartment
An OpenAI researcher-turned-whistleblower was found dead in a San Francisco apartment, authorities said.
The body of Suchir Balaji, 26, was discovered on Nov. 26 after police said they received a call to check on his well-being.
The San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death a suicide, and police found no evidence of homicide.
In recent months, Mr. Balaji has spoken out against the practices of artificial intelligence company OpenAI, which has been fighting multiple lawsuits related to its data collection practices.
October, The New York Times published an interview Mr. Balaji accused OpenAI of violating U.S. copyright laws in the development of its popular ChatGPT online chatbot.
The article states that after four years as a researcher at the company, Mr. Balaji concluded that “OpenAI violated the law by using copyrighted data to build ChatGPT, and that technologies like ChatGPT are disrupting the Internet.”
OpenAI says its models are “trained on publicly available data.”
Mr. Balaji left the company in August, telling The New York Times that he has since been working on personal projects.
He grew up in Cupertino, California, then went to the University of California, Berkeley, to study computer science.
“We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today, and our thoughts are with Suchil’s loved ones at this difficult time,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement quoted by CNBC News Together”.
U.S. and Canadian news publishers including The New York Times and a group of best-selling authors including John Grisham have filed lawsuits claiming the company illegally used news articles to train its software.
OpenAI told the BBC in November that its software was “based on fair use and relevant international copyright principles, is fair to creators and supports innovation”.
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