Despite San Francisco police repeatedly saying OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji’s death was a suicide, influential figures on both ends of the political spectrum are spreading questions about foul play, raised by the young man’s grieving family, around the world.
Former Fox News provocateur Tucker Carlson, on his Tuesday podcast, spoke with Balaji’s mother, Poornima Ramarao, about her son’s November death, saying he expected to be a potential witness in a lawsuit against his employer, OpenAI. The podcast bore a caption saying Balaji was “likely murdered.”
Hours later, a computer scientist from Turkey posted the allegation to his 35,000 followers on social media platform X: “Looks like OpenAI whistle blower was murdered by OpenAI.”
Then, Elon Musk on Wednesday re-posted to his 213 million followers on X the allegation through another contributor on the platform with 1 million followers who said “OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji was murdered” with a clip from the Carlson podcast. Musk also retweeted a post with a clip from that podcast showing Ramarao discussing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Speculation that the 26-year-old’s death was not by his own hand also jumped the political divide, with Silicon Valley Congressman Ro Khanna calling Wednesday for “a full and transparent investigation” after “very serious concerns about foul play” were raised by Balaji’s family.
Nolan Higdon, a Cal State University East Bay lecturer who studies online culture and propaganda,...
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