New Delhi:
The parents of Suchir Balaji, a former employee of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, have claimed that his autopsy had shown signs of struggle, such as head injuries. Balaji, 26, who raised ethical concerns about OpenAI's operations after leaving the artificial intelligence giant, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment earlier this month. Authorities say he died by suicide.
Balaji's parents Balaji Ramamurthy and Purnima Rao spoke to Our about their son's tragic death and their fight for justice.
“We have read the second autopsy, there are signs of struggle, such as head injuries. More details from the autopsy indicate it was a homicide,” his mother said.
Talking about his last conversation with his son, Mr Ramamurthy said: “He came back from a birthday trip from Los Angeles where he went with his friends, he was happy. He told me he wanted to go to Las Vegas for CES (a tech show ) ) in January he said he was going to eat,” he said.
Suchir Balaji, born and raised in California, worked as a researcher at OpenAI for almost four years. He quit in August in protest against the AI giant's business practices. Suchir alleged that OpenAI had violated U.S. copyright law and expressed his concerns in a report in The New York Times entitled “Former OpenAI Researcher Says the Company Broke Copyright Law.”
Ms Rao said Suchir was among the top 10 in the artificial intelligence industry. “Why would he leave OpenAI and leave the AI industry? He planned to start something in neuroscience and machine learning. Our suspicion is that he was threatened by OpenAI, did they suppress him? He didn't take another job, maybe they have threatened him,” she said.
Suchir, his mother said, had consulted a copyright lawyer and concluded that he did nothing wrong and that they were only oppressing him. That's why he went for an interview in the New York Times,” she said.
She said Suchir told her he was working on a study and would publish it as soon as it was completed. “In his publication, he explains on a mathematical basis that the modulated response does not exactly match the information entered into ChatGPT.”
Ms Rao said Suchir had told her that “artists' and journalists' work is being stolen (by ChatGPT) and that is very unethical”. “I agreed with him. He didn't fight OpenAI, he stood up for humanity. He says in his article that he thought AI would be good for humanity, but it causes more harm.”
Suchir's mother said she advised him to build support for his cause and he was working on it. The 26-year-old's parents say they believe the information Suchir had could have led to a turning point for the AI industry. “We believe so, we now know it is a power play, we have the autopsy report and he did not commit suicide. Who and why should we investigate,” Ms. Ramarao said.
Earlier, X boss Elon Musk and OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk expressed their support for Suchir Balaji's parents. In an Ms Ramarao said it was a great support to them, but made it clear that they had not yet contacted him.
Suchir's mother demanded an FBI investigation into her son's death, saying: “They must get to the bottom of this and give justice to my son. A precious life has been lost, it is a loss to technology industry, he was incredibly smart. At OpenAI, his former boss says he tweaked the algorithm and found an easy way to do things and that had a big impact on ChatGPT OpenAI continues to say we support the parents, we we wonder how.
Suchir's parents said they had also contacted Indian authorities in the US and had been assured of support. “We expect the Indian government to support us and raise its voice for us.”