The mother of Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former OpenAI researcher who accused the company of copyright violations and was found dead in November, is urging the FBI to investigate his death.
Balaji, who worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before resigning in October 2023, was discovered dead in his San Francisco apartment on November 26 2024. Authorities initially ruled his death a suicide. However, his mother, Poornima Ramarao, disputes this conclusion, citing evidence of foul play.
Suchir Balaji's Mother Reveals Shocking Details In Post On X
In a post on X, Ms Ramarao revealed that her family had conducted a second autopsy through a private investigator, which doesn’t confirm the police's stated cause of death. She alleged that Balaji's apartment on Buchanan Street appeared ransacked and showed signs of a struggle. Bloodstains in the bathroom suggested an assault, she claimed.
Calling it a cold-blooded murder declared as suicide, Ms Ramarao demanded an FBI investigation and vowed to seek justice despite alleged lobbying in San Francisco. She tagged Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, urging their support. Musk responded, saying, “This doesn’t seem like a suicide.”
Balaji’s father, Balaji Ramamurthy, also raised doubts about the suicide ruling. Speaking at a vigil in Milpitas, California, he shared that he had spoken to his son four days before his death. During the call, Balaji was in good spirits, celebrating his birthday in Los Angeles and sharing photos from his trip.
Balaji’s Whistleblowing Allegations Against OpenAI
In October 2023, Balaji resigned from OpenAI after accusing the company of violating copyright laws by training its AI models on copyrighted material scraped from the internet. He argued that this practice was harmful and could constitute copyright infringement if not covered under fair use.
“If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” Balaji told the New York Times in an interview before his death. On his personal website, he criticised OpenAI’s data practices, stating they were unsustainable for the internet ecosystem.
OpenAI, however, defended its practices, stating, “We build our AI models using publicly available data, in a manner protected by fair use and legal precedents.”
