Jack Silva | Null Photo | Getty Images
Suteru Balaji, a 26-year-old former OpenAI researcher, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in recent weeks, CNBC has confirmed.
Balaji leaves OpenAI raised concerns earlier this year The company has publicly announced that it is suspected of violating US copyright laws while developing its popular ChatGPT chatbot.
“The cause of death has been determined to be suicide,” David Serrano Sewell, executive director of the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told CNBC in an email Friday. He said Mr Balaji’s next of kin had been informed.
San Francisco Police Department said in an email that officers were called to an apartment on Buchanan Street on the afternoon of Nov. 26 to conduct a “safety check.” Police said they found a deceased adult male, but an initial investigation found “no evidence of foul play.”
News of Balaji’s death was first reported. san jose mercury news. Family members contacted by the newspaper asked for privacy.
In October, new york times We published an article about Balaji’s concerns.
“If you believe what I believe, you have to leave the company,” Balaji told the paper. He reportedly believed that ChatGPT and other chatbots like it would destroy the commercial viability of individuals and organizations that created the digital data and content now widely used to train AI systems. .
An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed Balaji’s death.
“We are devastated to learn this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Mr. Still’s loved ones during this difficult time,” a spokesperson said in an email.
OpenAI is currently in legal disputes with a number of publishers, authors, and artists over the alleged use of copyrighted material in its AI training data. The lawsuit, filed by news organizations in December, holds OpenAI and major backer Microsoft liable for billions of dollars in damages.
“We don’t actually need to train on their data,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said at a Bloomberg event in Davos earlier this year. “I think this is something that people don’t understand. If we have a specific training source, it doesn’t have as much of an impact on us.”
If you have suicidal thoughts, please contact us below. Lifeline for suicide and crisis For support and assistance from a trained counselor, please contact us at 988.
–CNBC’s Hayden Field contributed reporting.
clock: Why AI progress is slowing down
