News Brief
Indian-American OpenAI Whistleblower Suchir Balaji Found Dead In San Francisco Apartment
Suchir Balaji (Pic Via NYT)
Indian-American ex-researcher at OpenAI, Suchir Balaji, known for his vocal criticism of the organisation’s practices, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on 26 November.
The 26-year-old’s death has been ruled a suicide, with authorities reporting no evidence of foul play, Indian Express reported.
After four years at OpenAI, Balaji resigned in August and became a prominent voice raising ethical concerns about the use of copyrighted materials to train generative AI models like ChatGPT.
“I recently participated in a New York Times story about fair use and generative AI, and why I’m sceptical ‘fair use’ would be a plausible defence for a lot of generative AI products. I also wrote a blog post about the nitty-gritty details of fair use and why I believe this,” Balaji had written on X.
Speaking to The New York Times in an interview, Balaji criticised OpenAI’s data collection strategies, calling them harmful.
“If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” he remarked, raising alarms over the training of GPT-4 on massive amounts of internet data.
In his writings, Balaji focused on the risks posed by generative AI models creating content that could rival the copyrighted materials used in training.
He noted that this issue extended beyond OpenAI, saying, “Fair use and generative AI is a much broader issue than any one product or company.”
OpenAI faces legal challenges from several entities, including The New York Times, which allege that its practices violate copyright laws.
Balaji was named in court documents as someone with “unique and relevant documents” to support the lawsuits.
OpenAI has rejected these accusations. In a statement to the Chicago Tribune, it asserted, “We see immense potential for AI tools like ChatGPT to deepen publishers’ relationships with readers and enhance the news experience.”
Over the past two years, numerous lawsuits have targeted AI firms, including OpenAI, over alleged unlawful use of copyrighted materials for training.
In December, The New York Times sued OpenAI and its primary partner, Microsoft, claiming they used millions of articles published by the Times to build chatbots that now compete with the news outlet as a source of reliable information. Both companies have denied the claims.
