The family of an OpenAI whistleblower have called for his death to be reinvestigated after it was ruled to be a suicide.
Suchir Balaji, 26, a former OpenAI engineer who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law was found dead just days before he was called to be a witness in a case, his family said.
Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on November 26 in what police said “appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.”
The city’s chief medical examiner’s office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide but a congressman has now backed calls for an FBI investigation into the death.
His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a “happy, smart and brave young man” who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.
In a new interview with KTVU, Ramarao insisted there were things out of place in his “ransacked” apartment where his body was found four days before he was due to be called as a witness to the OpenAI case.
“The pin drive is missing. His computer was messed up. His desktop was left on for three days. It’s messed up”, she added.
They claim he was called as a witness for a copyright case against OpenAI four days before his death.
“You can see how happy he is. We want the world to see his happy mood just before his death,” said Ramarao.
She added that there was some “sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like someone hit him in the bathroom based on blood spots.”
Ramarao says the family will conduct an independent autopsy after attention was drawn to the case by Tesla billionaire Elon Musk who posted an interview with Ms Ramarao labelling the case “extremely concerning”.
On December 29, Musk posted: “This doesn’t seem like a suicide”.
Congressman Ro Khanna backed the family’s calls for an investigation after being texted live on air by Conservative firebrand Tucker Carlson as he interviewed Balaji’s family.
Khanna said: “My heart breaks for Suchir Balaji’s family and his mother, Poornima Ramarao, who I spoke to yesterday. It is a tragic loss. I trust that the appropriate federal law enforcement agencies will conduct an investigation.
“Let them investigate and bring it out, rather than speculating about something. We want the truth to come out and a report from the authorities as to what could be the reason for his death,” said Ms Ramarao.
Suchir first raised his concerns around OpenAI with The New York Times, which reported them in an October profile of Balaji.
He later told The Associated Press he would “try to testify” in the strongest copyright infringement cases and considered a lawsuit brought by The New York Times last year to be the “most serious.” Times lawyers named him in a Nov. 18 court filing as someone who might have “unique and relevant documents” supporting allegations of OpenAI’s willful copyright infringement.
He said gradually grew more disillusioned with OpenAI, especially after the internal turmoil that led its board of directors to fire and then rehire CEO Sam Altman last year.
This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
