On 27th December, family and friends of the deceased AI expert of Indian origin, Suchir Balaji, gathered for a vigil in Milpitas to honour his bravery and raise awareness about accountability in the field of Artificial Intelligence. In a statement during the vigil, his parents stated that they would continue to fight for justice and insisted that the death of their son deserved further investigation.
NEW: Parents of OpenAI whistleblower hire private investigator after their son allegedly took his own life, suggest their son was killed.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 29, 2024
The parents of 26-year-old Suchir Balaji say their son had plans to see them in January, claim there were "signs of a fight."
"I was the… pic.twitter.com/QNAs6fiEjs
The 26-year-old former OpenAI employee and whistleblower, Suchir Balaji, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on 26th November 2024. Initially, investigation agencies did not reveal the identity of the deceased person. However, on 13th December, they announced that the dead body found at the apartment located on Buchanan Street in San Francisco was that of Suchir.
San Francisco police and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Suchir committed suicide. However, his parents have raised concerns and claimed foul play in the matter. They have said that the information provided by the private investigator and the report of the independent autopsy contradict the police’s findings.
Parents question official narrative
An emotional video of Suchir’s parents has surfaced on social media where his father, Balaji Ramamurthy, described being the last person to speak with his son. He said, “He was happy, not depressed or anything. And it was his birthday week,” while disputing the suicide claim. His mother, Poornima Ramarao, said in a statement that the police reached conclusions too quickly. She said, “We’ve seen blood stains in the bathroom, signs of a fight. How can there be no suicide note or further investigation?”
Furthermore, Suchir had plans to visit his parents in January, as revealed by his parents. They expressed disbelief that their son could take his own life. They have called for an FBI investigation into the death of Suchir Balaji to uncover the truth.
Speaking to Mercury News, the media outlet that first broke the news of Suchir’s death, Ramarao said she was not aware that her son was planning to go public with his concerns about OpenAI. Notably, a day before Suchir’s body was recovered, his mother had visited the apartment after being unable to contact him, but no one answered the door. She called the authorities, but the police said little could be done that day. She followed up the next day with the police, and on the same day, his body was recovered from inside the apartment.
His actions caused anxiety for his parents, but his mother said she was proud of her son’s bravery. She said, “He kept assuring me, ‘Mom, I’m not doing anything wrong — go see the article. I’m just saying, my opinion, there’s nothing wrong in it. I supported him. I didn’t criticise him. I told him, ‘I’m proud of you because you have your own opinions and you know what’s right, what’s wrong.’ He was very ethical.”
Furthermore, Balaji was working on creating a non-profit centred on the fields of machine learning and neuroscience. He was already in talks with at least one venture capitalist for seed funding. She added that when she asked how Suchir was managing finances, he told her money was not important to him and asserted, “I want to offer a service to humanity.”
The last phone call between Suchir and his parents happened on 22nd November, just four days before he died. During the 10-minute call, he told them about his recent trip. She added, “He was very happy. He had a blast. He had one of the best times of his life.”
Whistleblower controversy adds complexity
Notably, Suchir was found dead just three months after he publicly accused OpenAI, his former employer, of copyright violations during the development of ChatGPT. The revelation made by Suchir was expected to play a vital role in lawsuits against the AI tech company. OpenAI has maintained its work adhered to fair use laws; however, Suchir’s revelations added a layer of complexity to the case.
Claims on social media and Musk’s response
A social media account under the name “Poornima” has claimed to be Suchir’s mother. The account has shared details on the matter alleging foul play. The post stated that Suchir’s apartment was ransacked, and there were signs of a struggle in the bathroom. The account holder labelled the death as “cold-blooded murder.”
While it is yet to be confirmed if the account actually belongs to his mother, a reply from billionaire Elon Musk has drawn attention to it. Responding to the post, Musk wrote, “This doesn’t seem like a suicide.”
This doesn’t seem like a suicide
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2024
Suchir Balaji’s views on AI
During an interview with The New York Times, Suchir revealed that he initially believed AI could benefit society, including its ability to cure diseases and stop ageing. He said, “I thought we could invent some kind of scientist that could help solve them.”
However, his views about AI began to change in 2022, two years after joining OpenAI as a researcher. He expressed concerns about his assignment to gather data from the internet for ChatGPT’s fourth version, which analysed text from nearly the entire internet to train the program.
In late October, in a post on Suchir’s personal website, he wrote that no known factors seemed to weigh in favour of the AI software being a fair use of its training data. He wrote, “That being said, none of the arguments here are fundamentally specific to ChatGPT either, and similar arguments could be made for many generative AI products in a wide variety of domains.”