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Suchir Balaji, who was once a researcher at OpenAI, allegedly died by suicide at his San Francisco residence, as stated by the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Balaji was reportedly found dead on November 26, 2024.
According to law enforcement officials, Balaji was discovered dead when they arrived at his house to conduct a welfare check after his friends and colleagues expressed concerns. As reported by The Free Press Journal, police had not discovered signs of foul play as of now. Amid the former researcher's death, it has come to light that he previously mentioned that OpenAI was possibly violating copyright law.
On October 24, Suchir Balaji shared a tweet on X, where he made claims about GenAI companies. In the tweet, he further shared that he worked at OpenAI for about four years. He added:
"I initially didn't know much about copyright, fair use, etc. but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits filed against GenAI companies."
Balaji then wrote:
"I eventually came to the conclusion that fair use seems like a pretty implausible defense for a lot of generative AI products, for the basic reason that they can create substitutes that compete with the data they're trained on."
In October, in an interview to The New York Times, Balaji claimed that initially he didn't understand the alleged violation by OpenAI. He apparently discovered it only after ChatGPT was launched in 2022.
Balaji's tragic demise has brought attention to his claims regarding the company's violation.
Suchir Balaji expressed concerns about OpenAI accessing online data which were protected by copyright
Following Suchir Balaji's death in San Francisco, his previous claims of copyright law violations by OpenAI have gained more attention. According to Times Now News, Balaji was a prominent part in the launching of ChatGPT.
Apart from the tweet and the interview with The New York Times, Balaji also penned down a detailed blog on the same. He mentioned that when he began working, he thought that the company could have access to any data available online, including the ones protected by copyright.
Balaji further believed that companies like OpenAI would cause damage to the online platform by replacing creative and innovative materials. In the interview with The New York Times, Suchir Balaji also said:
"If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company."
The outlet then revealed that after leaving OpenAI, Balaji didn't join another company and instead decided to work on his "personal projects."
While discussing this subject, it is worth noting that Suchir Balaji wasn't the first individual to raise concerns on the aforementioned issues, as reported by Times Now News. A former vice president of Stability AI, which is a generative AI startup headquartered in London, stated that extra cautiousness should be taken while dealing with protected content.
The young computer scientist joined OpenAI as an intern in 2020. After finishing his graduation from the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a degree in computer science, Suchir Balaji worked in the company till August 2024.
