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A 26-year-old former OpenAI researcher, Suchir Balaji, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in recent weeks, CNBC has confirmed.
Balaji left OpenAI at the beginning of the year and caused concern publicly alleged that the company violated US copyright law while developing its popular ChatGPT chatbot.
“The manner of death has been determined to be a suicide,” David Serrano Sewell, executive director of the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told CNBC in an email on Friday. He said that Balaji’s family members have been informed.
The San Francisco Police Department said in an email that officers were called to an apartment on Buchanan Street on the evening of Nov. 26 to conduct a “well-being check.” An adult male was found dead, and “no evidence of foul play” was found in the initial investigation, the department said.
He first reported the death of Balaji San Jose Mercury News. A family member contacted by the paper asked for privacy.
in october The New York Times He published a story about Balaji’s concerns.
“If you believe what I believe, you should leave the company,” Balaji told the newspaper. He believed that ChatGPT and other chatbots would destroy the commercial viability of the people and organizations that created the digital data and content used to train AI systems today.
An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed Balaji’s death.
“We are devastated to hear this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Suchir’s family at this difficult time,” the spokesman said in an email.
OpenAI is currently involved in legal disputes with various publishers, authors and artists over the alleged use of copyrighted material for AI training data. A the case It wants to retain OpenAI and the main sponsor presented by the news last December Microsoft liable for billions of dollars in damages.
“We actually don’t need to train on their data,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman he said in an event Bloomberg hosted it in Davos this year. “I think that’s something that people don’t understand. A certain source of training, it doesn’t move the needle as much for us.”
If you’re having suicidal thoughts, get in touch Suicide and crisis 988 for the help and support of a trained counselor.
— CNBC’s Hayden Field contributed reporting.
