OpenAI Whistleblower Found Dead in SF Apartment After Apparent Suicide

There appears to be an epidemic in the whistleblowing community. People from all walks of life that engage in whistleblowing against large corporations, high growth startups, government officials and industrial magnates appear to suffer from a certain affliction. It seems that right as they are about to testify against these companies, groups or individuals, they suddenly feel the need to kill themselves. Suicide seems to be contagious among people well positioned to damage the reputations of the powerful. Odd. 

Anyway, I’m sure this is coincidental, because since when have companies explicitly killed people who have threatened their financial goals? Never. However, this incredibly coincidental trend of whistleblowers committing suicide after bringing public attention to the potentially unscrupulous business practices of past employers has come to San Francisco’s tech industry. 

OpenAI whistleblower, Suchir Balaji, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment at the age of twenty-six in what local authorities have deemed a suicide. Balaji came to prominence after leaving OpenAI and publishing an essay critical of OpenAI’s use of copyrighted material in order to train its AI model. The essay questioned whether collecting copyrighted material to train an AI model that could directly compete with the owner or owners of the intellectual property was protected under fair use laws.

This wasn’t the first time OpenAI’s methods have been challenged. There are a multitude of lawsuits currently in litigation against OpenAI for copyright infringement. Some of these include major media organizations like the New York Times, whistleblower friendly-publications like The Intercept, and others that have argued that OpenAI’s model of training their A.I. system is in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. The suits allege that OpenAI is removing proper crediting – such as name of author, title of article, and name of publisher in order to conceal copyright infringement. 

To many, OpenAI is just a successful startup in San Francisco, but what few realize is that OpenAI is fully backed by, and could be viewed as an extension of Microsoft. OpenAI essentially operates as Microsoft’s artificial intelligence division. To put this in plain English, the conclusions of the impending court cases could determine the fate of the emerging A.I. sector, and be the difference between billions of dollars of profit or an endless sea of ongoing litigation for Microsoft. 

In the lawsuit filed by the New York Times, Balaji was named as a potential witness to OpenAI’s alleged ongoing copyright infringement, and was reportedly set to testify against his former employer. Balaji had an ongoing relationship with the New York Times going back to October when the newspaper interviewed Balaji and published an article explaining his reasons for leaving the company. 

However, it’s not all bad news for OpenAI. Sam Altman is arguably the most consequential techie since Mark Zuckerberg, he is ranked as one of San Francisco’s newest tech billionaires and has been added to Mayor-elect, Daniel Lurie’s transition team. I’m sure Altman will have an incredible impact on San Francisco considering his deep connections to Garry Tan, and who doesn’t like him? 

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