A 26-year-old former OpenAI researcher, Suchir Balaji, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in recent weeks, CNBC has confirmed.Balaji left OpenAIĀ earlier this year and raised concerns publicly that the company had allegedly violated U.S. copyright law while developing its popular ChatGPT chatbot.
āThe manner of death has been determined to be suicide,ā David Serrano Sewell, executive director of San Franciscoās Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told CNBC in an email on Friday. He said Balajiās next of kin have been notified. The San Francisco Police Department said in an e-mail that on the afternoon of Nov. 26, officers were called to an apartment on Buchanan Street to conduct a āwellbeing check.ā They found a deceased adult male, and discovered āno evidence of foul playā in their initial investigation, the department said.
News of Balajiās death was first reported by theĀ San Jose Mercury News. A family member contacted by the paper requested privacy.In October,Ā The New York Times published a story about Balajiās concerns. āIf you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,ā Balaji told the paper. He reportedly believed that ChatGPT and other chatbots like it would destroy the commercial viability of people and organizations who created the digital data and content now widely used to train AI systems.
