SAN FRANCISCO — A former OpenAI researcher known for whistleblowing the blockbuster artificial intelligence company facing a swell of lawsuits over its business model has died, authorities confirmed this week.
Suchir Balaji, 26, was found dead inside his Buchanan Street apartment on Nov. 26, San Francisco police and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said.
Information he held was expected to play a key part in lawsuits against the San Francisco-based company.
The Mercury News and seven sister news outlets are among several newspapers, including the New York Times, to sue OpenAI in the past year.
In an interview with the New York Times published Oct. 23, Balaji argued OpenAI was harming businesses and entrepreneurs whose data were used to train ChatGPT.
But his outlook began to sour in 2022, two years after joining OpenAI as a researcher.
OpenAI has staunchly refuted those claims, stressing that all of its work remains legal under “fair use” laws. »
