A former OpenAI researcher, Suchir Balaji, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on November 26. The 26-year-old had worked at the company for four years before leaving in August and had previously accused OpenAI of violating copyright law with its popular ChatGPT model.
Balaji had expressed concerns about how OpenAI collects data from the internet to train its AI models, citing potential harm to online knowledge communities. He argued that training AI models with vast amounts of copied data could lead to copyright infringement and undermine the value of creators’ work.
The OpenAI spokesperson stated that the company builds its AI models using publicly available data in a manner protected by fair use and related principles. However, Balaji’s concerns have sparked multiple lawsuits against the company, including one from The New York Times, which accused OpenAI of “unlawful use” of their work to create artificial intelligence products.
Balaji had also published an essay on his personal website, raising questions about fair use in the context of AI training data. He noted that while generative models rarely produce outputs similar to their training inputs, making copies of copyrighted data without permission could potentially be considered copyright infringement.
The San Francisco Police Department has found no evidence of foul play during the initial investigation, and the manner of death has been determined to be suicide by the city’s medical examiner. OpenAI has expressed condolences for Balaji’s family and stated that they are “devastated” by his death.
If you or someone you know is experiencing depression or suicidal thoughts, help is available through the US Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (988) or the Crisis Text Line (text “HOME” to 741741).
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/openai-whistleblower-found-dead-apparent-050222303.html