OPENAI AND CHATGPT WHISTLEBLOWER, WHO ALLEGED COPYRIGHT BREACH, FOUND DEAD
A former OpenAI employee who accused the company of breaching copyright laws during the development of ChatGPT has been found dead in his San Francisco flat, officials confirmed. Suchir Balaji, 26, alleged that OpenAI unlawfully used copyrighted material from writers, journalists, and programmers to train its generative AI system, sparking lawsuits and global scrutiny.
Balaji was discovered in his Buchanan Street residence on November 26 after San Francisco police conducted a welfare check. Authorities stated there is “no evidence of foul play,” while the Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet disclosed the cause of death.
Balaji resigned from OpenAI in August, citing ethical concerns. In an October interview with The New York Times, he said, “I no longer wanted to contribute to technologies that I believe would bring society more harm than benefit. If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company.”
He also criticized OpenAI’s practices as unsustainable, adding, “This is not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole.” Balaji’s whistleblowing drew attention to ongoing lawsuits against OpenAI over the use of copyrighted data in training ChatGPT, a tool that has achieved massive commercial success with a valuation exceeding $150 billion.
ChatGPT’s late 2022 release has been met with allegations from writers, programmers, and journalists claiming that OpenAI profited from their work without consent.
