CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses Suicide.
Former OpenAI researcher turned whistleblower Suchir Balaji has been found dead in an apparent suicide in a San Francisco apartment.
According to authorities, officers reported to a San Francisco apartment on Buchanan Street on November 26 to conduct a “wellbeing check”.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found a deceased male, and reported “no evidence of foul play”.
“Officers and medics arrived on scene and located a deceased adult male from what appeared to be a suicide,” the San Francisco Police Department shared in a statement, per The San Francisco Standard.
“No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.”
Doubling down on the SFPD’s statement, the director of the office of the city’s medical examiner David Serrano Sewell told the publication: “The manner of death has been determined to be suicide.”
Back in October, Balaji became vocal regarding his concerns about copyright and fair use when it came to Artificial Intelligence.
The former researcher, who previously worked at OpenAI for almost four years before leaving in August, took to The New York Times to voice his concerns and highlighted technology like AI was damaging the internet by violating copyright law.
“[Balaji] came to the conclusion that OpenAI’s use of copyrighted data violated the law and that technologies like ChatGPT were damaging the internet,” the NYT piece reads.
In his final X (formerly Twitter) post, where he promoted his The New York Times piece, Balaji elaborated on his concerns.
I recently participated in a NYT story about fair use and generative AI, and why I'm skeptical "fair use" would be a plausible defense for a lot of generative AI products. I also wrote a blog post (https://t.co/xhiVyCk2Vk) about the nitty-gritty details of fair use and why I…
— Suchir Balaji (@suchirbalaji) October 23, 2024
“I was at OpenAI for nearly four years and worked on ChatGPT for the last 1.5 of them. I initially didn’t know much about copyright, fair use, etc. but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits filed against GenAI companies,” he began.
“When I tried to understand the issue better, I eventually came to the conclusion that fair use seems like a pretty implausible defence for a lot of generative AI products, for the basic reason that they can create substitutes that compete with the data they’re trained on.
“I’ve written up the more detailed reasons for why I believe this in my post. Obviously, I’m not a lawyer, but I still feel like it’s important for even non-lawyers to understand the law — both the letter of it, and also why it’s actually there in the first place.”
Following news of Balaji’s death, a spokesperson for OpenAI told CNBC News, “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.”
OpenAI has multiple lawsuits filed against it, with news publishers and writers accusing the company of illegally using its content to train its software.
In a statement to the BBC, an OpenAI spokesperson said its software is “grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that are fair for creators and support innovation”.
- If you need mental health support, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or chat online.
- Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
- You can also reach the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 or chat online.
- If you require immediate assistance, please call 000.
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