SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher who voiced concerns over the company’s data practices, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on November 26, authorities confirmed. Balaji’s death has been ruled a suicide by the San Francisco Chief Medical Examiner.

Police officers conducted a welfare check at Balaji’s Buchanan Street residence in the Lower Haight neighborhood around 1 p.m. that day, finding no evidence of foul play. The 26-year-old’s passing has shocked the tech community, as he was a promising AI researcher whose career was deeply intertwined with the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence.

Balaji, who worked at OpenAI for nearly four years, was instrumental in developing foundational technologies like GPT-4 and ChatGPT. However, his tenure ended in disillusionment. In October, he publicly criticized OpenAI’s alleged misuse of copyrighted data, stating that the company’s reliance on vast amounts of online information for training its AI models likely violated fair use laws.

“Fair use seems like a pretty implausible defense for a lot of generative AI products,” Balaji wrote in a blog post. He emphasized that these practices undermined the creators of the original data and posed long-term risks to the internet ecosystem. “If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” he told The New York Times in an October interview.

Balaji’s insights were expected to play a pivotal role in ongoing lawsuits against OpenAI and its partner Microsoft. In particular, a recent court filing in a copyright case brought by The New York Times cited him as a key figure with unique knowledge of the company’s data practices. Just one day before his death, OpenAI had agreed to review Balaji’s custodial files as part of the case.

Born in Cupertino, California, Balaji’s passion for artificial intelligence began during his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in computer science. He interned at OpenAI before joining the company full-time in 2019. Early in his career, he contributed to projects like WebGPT, an early iteration of search-enhanced AI, and later played a key role in GPT-4’s development.

Balaji’s views on AI shifted over time. Initially drawn to its transformative potential, he became concerned about its societal implications, particularly the ethical dilemmas posed by training models on copyrighted material. Despite his criticism, he acknowledged that issues surrounding generative AI were industry-wide and not limited to OpenAI alone.

Balaji’s death comes amid a wave of legal challenges for OpenAI and the broader generative AI sector. Media outlets, including The New York Times and The Mercury News, have filed lawsuits claiming that AI companies have infringed on their copyrights to train AI models. These lawsuits argue that the unauthorized use of journalistic content threatens the sustainability of news organizations.

“Microsoft and OpenAI simply take the work product of reporters, journalists, editorial writers, editors, and others who contribute to the work of local newspapers — all without any regard for the efforts, much less the legal rights, of those who create and publish the news,” reads a lawsuit filed by a coalition of newspapers.

OpenAI, valued at over $150 billion, has denied wrongdoing, asserting that its use of data falls under fair use provisions. “We see immense potential for AI tools like ChatGPT to deepen publishers’ relationships with readers and enhance the news experience,” the company said in response to the lawsuits.

In a statement to TechCrunch, an OpenAI spokesperson expressed condolences: “We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today, and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time.” Balaji’s mother, meanwhile, has requested privacy as the family grieves.

Read in his own words Suchir Balaji’s criticism of generative AI in this article he published on his own blog less than two months ago.