Sat Dec 14 00:20:00 UTC 2024: ## Former OpenAI Employee Found Dead in Apparent Suicide
**San Francisco, CA** – Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former AI researcher at OpenAI, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on November 26th. The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has ruled his death a suicide.
Balaji, who worked at OpenAI for nearly four years and contributed to the development of ChatGPT, had recently voiced concerns about the company’s copyright practices in an interview with The New York Times. He believed OpenAI’s use of copyrighted data in training its AI models was legally questionable and harmful to the internet. His concerns came amid ongoing lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft from various news organizations, including the New York Times, alleging copyright infringement.
Balaji left OpenAI earlier this year, stating that he believed the technology posed more risks than benefits to society. Before joining OpenAI, he studied computer science at UC Berkeley and interned at both OpenAI and Scale AI. His LinkedIn profile shows contributions to various OpenAI projects, including WebGPT and GPT-4.
OpenAI released a statement expressing its devastation at the news and extending condolences to Balaji’s family. The San Francisco Police Department has not yet commented. The details surrounding Balaji’s death remain under investigation.
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