Source: Jernej Furman from Slovenia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

San Francisco police confirmed this week the death of Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher who made headlines after whistleblowing on the potentially illegal business practices of his former employer. Balaji, 26, was found deceased inside his Lower Haight residence on Buchanan Street on Nov. 26 after police were asked to check on his well-being, according to a report by the East Bay Times. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the manner of death to be suicide, with police indicating that there is "currently, no evidence of foul play."

Balaji's demise is particularly significant given his recent public dissensions against OpenAI. In an interview published by the New York Times on Oct. 23, he accused the AI company of harming businesses and entrepreneurs by illegally using copyrighted data to train its AI program, ChatGPT. "If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company," Balaji had told the publication. The New York Times also confirmed that Balaji had been named someone holding "unique and relevant documents" in the legal struggles embroiling OpenAI, which were to be contested in court fiercely.

ChatGPT launched in late 2022, igniting a spate of lawsuits against OpenAI over the unlawful appropriation of copyrighted material. These claims, led by numerous authors, computer programmers, and journalists, were substantiated by Balaji's concerns about the company's...

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