Was it suicide or something more? OpenAI Whistleblower Suchir Balaji’s death stirs suspicion

OpenAi Whistleblower Suchir Balaji was found dead at his San Francisco apartment and his final words on social media platform are going viral, sparking debate over his reason behind the suicide.  

The final words by Suchir Balaji on X formerly known as twitter highlighted the ‘fair use’ for generative AI products in the statement he made on X in October 2024.  

In his statement, he emphasized his job at OpenAI, where he nearly worked for 4 years, out of which he worked for 1.5 years on ChatGPT.   

“I initially didn't know much about copyright, fair use, etc. but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits filed against GenAI companies.” he added.  

The OpenAI Whistleblower, in order to delve deeper into the issue, did a lot of research, which eventually landed him to a solution that fair use seems like a pretty implausible defense for several generative AI products.  

He supported his statement as he suggested that they can easily create substitutes that can compete with the data they are trained on.  

“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,” he said.  

Suchir Balaji, noted that the statements he made are not from a perspective of a critique of ChatGPT or OpenAI, as fair use is a much broader issue than any company or product.  

While this was the last or any official statement made by Suchir Balaji, it has been sparking a lot of debate online following his death.  

“He's killed for not following the company's instructions just like the guy who acted as a whistleblower against apparent design flaws in Boeing Airplanes ,” a user wrote on social media highlighting that he died as he not followed company’s rules.  

“We need special laws to protect whistle blowers and strict implementation of the same,” another user said.  

Ruha Tabassum on social media wrote, “What do you mean by found dead? Did he commit suicide or murdered purposely by other.”  

On the other hand Sudhanshu Gaur stated put the companies at fault noting, “These big companies are actually organized mafias, if you go against them or raise a genuine concern, they don’t like it. On your face, they will behave as nothing happened and you are the best. These young kids need to be very careful with them.”  

A Pakistani user also expressed his views over the suspicious death of the individual, “Being a Pakistani I condemn this incident and this should be brought to the Higher Commission of India, We as Pakistani didn't advanced in AI at least we can't tolerate this with our neighbors. I pray for his family and love ones.” 

“Indians are skillfull, hard working , intelligent and good human beings. There is brain drain .Such people should be given proper employment in India,” a person wrote highlighting one of the most serious issues in India ‘Brain Drain’. 

While the authorities state the reason of death of OpenAI Whistleblower Suchir Balaji to be suicide, netizens on social media are not  this notion as they call it as a ‘murder’.