OpenAI Whistleblower Found Dead by Suicide: Reports

Mar. 15, 2025

Suchi Balaji.Photo:Suchir Balaji/X

Suchir Balaji/X

Balaji’s body was discovered in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26, according toCNBC.

“The manner of death has been determined to be suicide,” David Serrano Sewell, director of San Francisco’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told the outlet in a Dec. 13 email.

Sewell also noted that Balaji’s next of kin have been notified.

The San Francisco Police Department confirmed the report in an email toThe San Francisco Standard, sharing that police officers were called to an apartment on Buchanan Street on Nov. 26 to conduct a wellness check. It was there that they discovered a deceased adult male.

The department said that there is “no evidence of foul play” at this time.

PEOPLE reached out to both the SFPD and San Francisco’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

OpenAI logo.Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty

Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty

“We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time,” a spokesperson for OpenAI — the company that developed ChatGPT — toldFox News.

According toThe New York Times,Balaji left his job at OpenAI in August after four years as an artificial intelligence researcher.

He said he had come to the conclusion that the company had violated copyright laws in developing its AI technology and that platforms like ChatGPT were harming society.

“If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” he toldThe New York Timesin a series of interviews.

Balaji referencedthe piece in his final post onX post(formerly Twitter) on Oct. 23, writing, “I recently participated in a NYT story about fair use and generative AI, and why I’m skeptical ‘fair use’ would be a plausible defense for a lot of generative AI products.”

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“That being said,” he continued, “I don’t want this to read as a critique of ChatGPT or OpenAI per se, because fair use and generative AI is a much broader issue than any one product or company.”

source: people.com