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Suchir Balaji, a former employee at ChatGPT-parent OpenAI, accused the company of violating copyright laws in October. A month later, he was found dead in his US apartment. In an October interview with The New York Times, Balaji shared his disillusionment after realising that OpenAI's practices, especially its use of internet-sourced data to train AI models, could be infringing on copyright laws.
In an interview with Business Insider on Thursday, Balaji's mother, Poornima Ramarao, shared her son's journey, his growing concerns about OpenAI, and the disillusionment leading to his decision to leave the company.
According to Ramarao, her son believed the company had shifted focus, moving away from its open-source, nonprofit roots, and towards a more financially-driven agenda. His concerns intensified as OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a product powered by the data he had helped gather for GPT-4.
“He felt AI is a harm to humanity,” Ramarao told Business Insider. The growing tension between Balaji's ideals and OpenAI's commercial strategies ultimately led him to resign in August.
Balaji excelled from an early age. His mother recalled how he could form complex sentences at just two years old and began learning to code by age 11. By 14, he had written a scientific paper on chip design, and at 17, he was recruited by the online knowledge-sharing platform Quora. Ramarao recalled, “As a toddler, as a little 5-year-old, he never made mistakes. He was perfect.”
Despite his early achievements, Balaji's experience at OpenAI became disheartening. His excitement for the company dwindled, with him initially sharing only the “cool” projects he was working on.
His resignation in August was a huge moment in his career, and when he went public with his views in The New York Times, his family's anxieties mounted. Ramarao remembered their conversation after the interview. She said, “I literally blasted him. ‘You should not go alone. Why did you give your picture? Why did you give your name? Why don't you stay anonymous? What's the need for you to give your picture?'”
Balaji assured his mother that he was connecting with others who shared his concerns, but Ramarao believed he was too naive to fully grasp the corporate dynamics at play.
On November 21, Balaji celebrated his 26th birthday. The following day, he spoke with his parents. “He was upbeat and happy. What can go wrong within a few hours that his life is lost?” his mother said.
But then tragedy struck. After a few days without contact, Ramarao grew concerned. When the police reached her son's apartment, she was informed that he had died by suicide.
Despite the official ruling, Ramarao and her husband remain unconvinced. They arranged for a private autopsy, the results of which have not been made public. The family is now working with a lawyer to press for a more thorough investigation into their son's death.
“We want to leave the question open. It doesn't look like a normal situation,” Ramarao said.