Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher who accused his employer of violating copyright law, has died. Police have not found evidence of foul play.

Summary

Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher, was found dead by apparent suicide in his San Francisco apartment on November 26 at age 26.

Balaji had recently criticized OpenAI’s use of copyrighted data to train AI models like GPT-4, arguing it harms online knowledge communities and raises copyright concerns.

His comments were cited in lawsuits accusing OpenAI of copyright infringement. Balaji had been named as a custodian in a lawsuit by The New York Times shortly before his death.

OpenAI defended its practices as fair use.