The death of 26-year-old Suchir Balaji, a former employee of ChatGPT-parent company OpenAI, has become the center of a heated controversy. Balaji, who had accused OpenAI of copyright violations just a month prior, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on November 26. While authorities initially ruled his death a suicide, Balaji’s family has raised serious concerns, demanding an FBI investigation into what they claim is a case of foul play.
Balaji’s mother, Poornima Ramarao, took to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday (29) to announce the family’s decision to hire a private investigator and conduct a second autopsy. She alleged that the findings of this autopsy did not align with the official conclusion of suicide.
“There was a sign of struggle in the bathroom, and it looks like someone hit him in the bathroom based on blood spots,” Ms. Ramarao wrote. She further alleged that Balaji’s apartment, located on Buchanan Street, was “ransacked.”
Update on @suchirbalaji
We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death. Private autopsy doesn’t confirm cause of death stated by police.
Suchir’s apartment was ransacked , sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like some one hit him…
— Poornima Rao (@RaoPoornima) December 29, 2024
“It’s a cold-blooded murder declared by authorities as suicide. Lobbying in SF city doesn’t stop us from getting justice,” she added while calling for a federal investigation into her son’s death.
Tagging prominent figures such as billionaire Elon Musk and Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who are set to join the upcoming Donald Trump administration, Ms. Ramarao emphasized her plea for accountability.
Elon Musk, known for his long-standing feud with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, reacted to Ms. Ramarao’s post, stating, “This doesn’t seem like a suicide.” His comment has drawn significant attention to the case, amplifying calls for an independent inquiry.
Speaking at a vigil held in Milpitas, California, Balaji’s father, Balaji Ramamurthy, shared details of his last conversation with his son on November 22. The call lasted 15 minutes, during which they discussed Suchir’s recent trip to Los Angeles as part of his birthday celebration.
“He was in LA and having a good time. So he sent us all the pictures,” Mr. Ramamurthy told the Guardian. “He was in a good mood.”
Before his death, Suchir Balaji had publicly accused OpenAI of training its AI models using copyrighted material scraped from the internet without authorization. He argued that this practice, if not protected under “fair use,” amounted to copyright infringement.
Update on @suchirbalaji
We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death. Private autopsy doesn’t confirm cause of death stated by police.
Suchir’s apartment was ransacked , sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like some one hit him…
— Poornima Rao (@RaoPoornima) December 29, 2024
“If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” Balaji told the New York Times in October.
Balaji resigned from OpenAI in October 2023 after nearly four years with the company. During his tenure, he contributed to data collection for ChatGPT, OpenAI’s flagship product. On his personal website, Balaji elaborated on his concerns, asserting that the company’s approach to data collection was detrimental to the broader internet ecosystem.
“Generative models rarely produce outputs identical to their training data, but the act of replicating copyrighted material during training could violate laws,” he stated.
Balaji also argued that such practices posed ethical and legal challenges, calling them unsustainable for the internet as a whole.
OpenAI has consistently denied Balaji’s allegations, maintaining that their data usage adheres to fair use principles and legal precedents.
“We build our AI models using publicly available data, in a manner protected by fair use and related principles, and supported by longstanding and widely accepted legal precedents. We view this principle as fair to creators, necessary for innovators, and critical for US competitiveness,” OpenAI said in a statement.
Balaji’s criticisms gained prominence following ChatGPT’s launch in 2022, as he began questioning the ethical and legal implications of AI development. By mid-2023, he concluded that such technologies were harmful to society and resigned from OpenAI.
His untimely death has sparked widespread speculation and raised critical questions about the risks faced by whistleblowers in the tech industry. As the investigation unfolds, Balaji’s case continues to highlight the ongoing debate over the ethical development and regulation of artificial intelligence.
