Sam Altman says OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji, who died last year, "was like a friend."
The OpenAI co-founder also backed the police ruling that Balaji's death was a suicide, a finding rejected by Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO has publicly insisted the researcher "was murdered."
Suchir Balaji, an Indian-origin AI researcher, worked at OpenAI for four years before he was found dead in his apartment in November 2024, weeks after accusing the company of copyright violations.
Sam Altman addressed Balaji's death in an interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson.
"You had complaints from one programmer who said you guys were basically stealing people's stuff and not paying them, and then he wound up murdered. What was that?" Carlson asked.
Altman replied, "A great tragedy. He committed suicide."
Asked if he thought Balaji killed himself, Sam Altman said, "I really do."
"He was like a friend of mine. I spent a lot of time trying to, you know, read everything I could, as I'm sure you and others did too, about what happened. It looks like a suicide to me," he said.
Asked why, Altman added, "It was a gun he had purchased."
Sam Altman on God, Elon and the mysterious death of his former employee.
— Tucker Carlson...
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(19:08) ChatGPT Users Committing Suicide
(27:21) Will Altman Allow… pic.twitter.com/ZQSbSCMgCp
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