--- title: "OpenAI Says It’s “Devastated” That a Whistleblower Against It Has Been Found Dead" description: "After blowing the whistle on OpenAI's alleged use of copyrighted material, one of its former researchers has been found dead." date: "2024-12-16" modified: "2024-12-16" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-devastated-whistleblower-died" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "OpenAI" - "suicide" - "the digest" - "whistleblower" --- # OpenAI Says It’s “Devastated” That a Whistleblower Against It Has Been Found Dead ![After blowing the whistle on OpenAI's alleged use of copyrighted material, one of its former researchers has been found dead.]() *\Image: Didem Mente / Anadolu via Getty / Futurism\* ## DOA Soon after blowing the whistle on OpenAI's alleged use of copyrighted material in its training data, one of its former researchers was found dead of an apparent suicide. In a [statement to *CNBC*](), a spokesperson for the firm said that OpenAI was "devastated" to hear of the untimely passing of its former employee Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old who died in his San Francisco apartment in recent weeks. "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today," the firm told *CNBC*, "and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time." According to the [Bay Area's *Mercury News*]() — which, along with the *New York Times*, is suing OpenAI for alleged copyright infringement — Balaji's body was found on November 26 after someone requested a wellness check at his apartment. While it's unclear who made the call or why they put in the request, authorities currently believe there was "no evidence of foul play" and that his death was indeed a suicide. Still, the youthful whistleblower's body was found almost exactly a month after the [*NYT* published his allegations](), which include Balaji's claim that his job was essentially [hoovering up copyrighted material]() to train OpenAI's models without the consent of its creators. ## Silicon Valley'd A native of Cupertino, California, the Silicon Valley town that hosts Apple's headquarters, Balaji fell in love with AI after learning about a Google DeepMind neural network that had mastered the ancient Chinese game "Go." "I thought that AI was a thing that could be used to solve unsolvable problems, like curing diseases and stopping aging," he told the *NYT*. "I thought we could invent some kind of scientist that could help solve them." After matriculating at UC Berkeley, the young man became one of the lucky grads at his alma mater who got the chance to work at OpenAI in 2020. A few years in, he began working to train the still-unreleased GPT-4 large language model (LLM). Although the material he was feeding into it was copyrighted, he and his colleagues thought of it more as a "research project" despite the company's for-profit status — an assessment he later came to believe wasn't right. Eventually, Balaji determined that the material he was feeding into GPT-4 was not "fair use" after all and [said as much on his personal blog](). He left OpenAI this August because, as he said, "If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company." It's impossible to know what was going on in Balaji's mind when he died. Nevertheless, his death casts a pall over the firm, which has [in the last year]() become the subject of [ample media drama]() as its technology — and its [client roster]() — gets [more and more powerful](). **More on ex-OpenAI-ers:** [*AI Safety Researcher Quits OpenAI, Saying Its Trajectory Alarms Her*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()