The case of the death of OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji has taken an unexpected turn.
The parents of Suchir Balaji have indicated that they suspect foul play in the death of their son. Balaji was found dead in his apartment in San Francisco on 26th November, and reports that suggested that he might have taken his own life. Balaji had appeared in a New York Times article three months prior accusing his employer, OpenAI, of breaking copyright law. He had been named as a witness in a lawsuit against OpenAI, and had told reporters he’d “try to testify” against the company.
“I was the last person to talk to him,” Suchir Balaji’s father Balaji Ramamurthy told reporters. “He was happy, not depressed or anything. And it was his birthday week,” he added.
“He made plans to see us in January. That was the last phone conversation he had with anyone. He went into his apartment and never came out. There was no suicide note,” his mother Poornima Ramarao said. “And there was nobody else on the scene, that doesn’t mean they can just come to conclusion. And we have seen the blood shots in the bathroom, signs of a fight in the bathroom,” she added.
Suchir Balaji, 26, had worked at OpenAI from November 2020 to August 2024 as a Member of Technical Staff. But he appeared to grow disillusioned with the direction the company was taking. In 2024, Balaji had penned a detailed blogpost saying how OpenAI was likely breaking copyright law by training its model on copyrighted works. He had then approached the New York Times, which had featured him in an article titled ““Former OpenAI Researcher Says the Company Broke Copyright Law”, with his picture prominently displayed. In the article, Balaji had contended that OpenAI was negatively impacting businesses and entrepreneurs whose information was utilised to train ChatGPT. “If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave (OpenAI),” he told New York Times, adding that “this is not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole.” In August 2024, Balaji had left OpenAI.
After quitting, he had told the Associated Press he would “try to testify” in the strongest copyright infringement cases against OpenAI. The lawyers of New York Times, which is suing AI, had named Balaji in an 18th November court filing as someone who might have “unique and relevant documents” supporting allegations of OpenAI’s willful copyright infringement.
Balaji’s body was discovered in his San Francisco apartment after a welfare check at his residence. The medical examiner had not disclosed the cause of death, though police had then said that there was “currently no evidence of foul play.” Balaji’s parents, though, have hired a private investigator to look into the death of their son. And with them claiming that he wasn’t depressed, and that they’d seen signs of a fight in the bathroom, there might be more to the case than meets the eye.