26-year-old Suchir Balaji, a former employee of OpenAI, was found dead in his apartment in San Francisco, according to The Times of India.
The cause of the young researcher’s death remains unknown, but police have stated that no signs of foul play were discovered at the scene.
Suchir Balaji gained public attention following his recent conflict with OpenAI, in which he accused the company of violating U.S. copyright laws. According to sources, Balaji alleged that some of OpenAI’s algorithms used copyrighted data without proper authorization. His claims stirred controversy within the tech community and brought increased scrutiny to issues of ethics and accountability in AI development.
The incident comes amid growing tensions surrounding OpenAI. In August of this year, American entrepreneur Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against the company and its CEO, Sam Altman, accusing them of unethical practices in artificial intelligence. Musk, who was one of OpenAI’s co-founders, left the organization in 2018 and has since repeatedly criticized its direction.
