The parents of a young California tech whistleblower whose 2024 death was ruled a suicide at the moment are suing the City and County of San Francisco, alleging they violated public records laws by refusing to meet their requests for details about their son’s death.
Suchir Balaji, 26, was an worker at OpenAI, the factitious intelligence company behind ChatGPT, on the time of his Nov. 26, 2024, death. A San Francisco County medical expert concluded the following day he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside his apartment.
“Within the two-plus months since their son’s passing, Petitioners and their counsel have been stymied at every turn as they’ve sought more information in regards to the explanation for and circumstances surrounding Suchir’s tragic death. This petition, they hope, is the start of the tip of that obstruction,” the lawsuit states.
San Francisco City Attorney’s Office spokesperson Jen Kwart told Fox News Digital that after their office is served, they’ll review the criticism and respond accordingly.
“Mr. Balaji’s death is a tragedy, and our hearts exit to his family,” Kwart said.
“It’s really been a nightmare for the last three months for them,” certainly one of the family’s attorneys, Kevin Rooney, told Fox News Digital.
Just days before he died, Balaji was “upbeat and comfortable” during a visit to Catalina Island together with his friends for his twenty sixth birthday, the criticism filed Jan. 31 says.
The lawsuit describes Balaji as a “child prodigy with a specific interest in and talent for coding.” He attended the University of California at Berkeley, and, upon graduating, was hired as an AI researcher at OpenAI.
“In that position, he was integral in OpenAI’s efforts to collect and organize data from the web used to coach GPT-4, a language model utilized by the corporate’s now-ubiquitous online chatbot, ChatGPT,” the criticism says.
By August 2024, nevertheless, Balaji “had turn out to be disillusioned with OpenAI’s business practices and decided to go away to pursue his own projects.” In October, he was featured in a Latest York Times article titled “Former Open AI Researcher Says the Company Broke Copyright Law,” together with his photo.
Balaji alleged that “OpenAI violates United States copyright law because ChatGPT trains on copyrighted products of business competitors after which can imitate and substitute those products, running the danger of reducing the business viability of OpenAI’s competitors to zero,” in response to the lawsuit.
In a Jan. 16 statement, OpenAI described Balaji as a “valued member” of the corporate’s team, and its employees are “still heartbroken by his passing.”
Balaji’s parents, Poornima Ramarao and Bajami Ramamurthy, allege their requests for more details about their son’s death were denied unfairly under the California Public Records Act. They further alleged within the lawsuit that investigators didn’t take their concerns about Balaji’s whistleblower status seriously.
Rooney said there are good reasons for investigators not to reveal certain details about a criminal case to the general public.
“But you must no less than communicate with them and allow them to know generally what’s being done to research the case,” Rooney said. “And if that hasn’t been done here because they’ve made a conclusion that Suchir died by suicide and that the investigation is closed, well … then we do have a right under the law [to view police records].
“When Ms. Ramarao informed the representative that her son had been a whistleblower against OpenAI and had been featured within the Latest York Times regarding his whistleblower allegations, the representative declined to follow up or seek any additional information,” the lawsuit alleged.
“As a substitute, the [medical examiner’s office] representative handed Ms. Ramarao Suchir’s apartment keys and told her she could retrieve her son’s body the next day. The representative also told Ms. Ramarao that she mustn’t be allowed to see Suchir’s body and that his face had been destroyed when a bullet went through his eye.”
Dr. Joseph Cohen, a forensic pathologist hired by Balaji’s parents, conducted a non-public autopsy and noted that Balaji’s gunshot wound was “atypical and unusual in suicides.” The 26-year-old also had a contusion on the back of his head, in response to the criticism.
Cohen also “noted that the trajectory of the bullet was downward with a slight left to right angle” and “that the bullet completely missed the brain before perforating and lodging within the brain stem.”
Fox News Digital reached out to OpenAI for comment.
If you happen to are scuffling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in Latest York City, you may call 1-888-NYC-WELL without cost and confidential crisis counseling. If you happen to live outside the five boroughs, you may dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
The parents of a young California tech whistleblower whose 2024 death was ruled a suicide at the moment are suing the City and County of San Francisco, alleging they violated public records laws by refusing to meet their requests for details about their son’s death.
Suchir Balaji, 26, was an worker at OpenAI, the factitious intelligence company behind ChatGPT, on the time of his Nov. 26, 2024, death. A San Francisco County medical expert concluded the following day he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside his apartment.
“Within the two-plus months since their son’s passing, Petitioners and their counsel have been stymied at every turn as they’ve sought more information in regards to the explanation for and circumstances surrounding Suchir’s tragic death. This petition, they hope, is the start of the tip of that obstruction,” the lawsuit states.
San Francisco City Attorney’s Office spokesperson Jen Kwart told Fox News Digital that after their office is served, they’ll review the criticism and respond accordingly.
“Mr. Balaji’s death is a tragedy, and our hearts exit to his family,” Kwart said.
“It’s really been a nightmare for the last three months for them,” certainly one of the family’s attorneys, Kevin Rooney, told Fox News Digital.
Just days before he died, Balaji was “upbeat and comfortable” during a visit to Catalina Island together with his friends for his twenty sixth birthday, the criticism filed Jan. 31 says.
The lawsuit describes Balaji as a “child prodigy with a specific interest in and talent for coding.” He attended the University of California at Berkeley, and, upon graduating, was hired as an AI researcher at OpenAI.
“In that position, he was integral in OpenAI’s efforts to collect and organize data from the web used to coach GPT-4, a language model utilized by the corporate’s now-ubiquitous online chatbot, ChatGPT,” the criticism says.
By August 2024, nevertheless, Balaji “had turn out to be disillusioned with OpenAI’s business practices and decided to go away to pursue his own projects.” In October, he was featured in a Latest York Times article titled “Former Open AI Researcher Says the Company Broke Copyright Law,” together with his photo.
Balaji alleged that “OpenAI violates United States copyright law because ChatGPT trains on copyrighted products of business competitors after which can imitate and substitute those products, running the danger of reducing the business viability of OpenAI’s competitors to zero,” in response to the lawsuit.
In a Jan. 16 statement, OpenAI described Balaji as a “valued member” of the corporate’s team, and its employees are “still heartbroken by his passing.”
Balaji’s parents, Poornima Ramarao and Bajami Ramamurthy, allege their requests for more details about their son’s death were denied unfairly under the California Public Records Act. They further alleged within the lawsuit that investigators didn’t take their concerns about Balaji’s whistleblower status seriously.
Rooney said there are good reasons for investigators not to reveal certain details about a criminal case to the general public.
“But you must no less than communicate with them and allow them to know generally what’s being done to research the case,” Rooney said. “And if that hasn’t been done here because they’ve made a conclusion that Suchir died by suicide and that the investigation is closed, well … then we do have a right under the law [to view police records].
“When Ms. Ramarao informed the representative that her son had been a whistleblower against OpenAI and had been featured within the Latest York Times regarding his whistleblower allegations, the representative declined to follow up or seek any additional information,” the lawsuit alleged.
“As a substitute, the [medical examiner’s office] representative handed Ms. Ramarao Suchir’s apartment keys and told her she could retrieve her son’s body the next day. The representative also told Ms. Ramarao that she mustn’t be allowed to see Suchir’s body and that his face had been destroyed when a bullet went through his eye.”
Dr. Joseph Cohen, a forensic pathologist hired by Balaji’s parents, conducted a non-public autopsy and noted that Balaji’s gunshot wound was “atypical and unusual in suicides.” The 26-year-old also had a contusion on the back of his head, in response to the criticism.
Cohen also “noted that the trajectory of the bullet was downward with a slight left to right angle” and “that the bullet completely missed the brain before perforating and lodging within the brain stem.”
Fox News Digital reached out to OpenAI for comment.
If you happen to are scuffling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in Latest York City, you may call 1-888-NYC-WELL without cost and confidential crisis counseling. If you happen to live outside the five boroughs, you may dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
