OpenAI Whistleblower's Death Ruled Suicide, Raising Ethical Questions About AI Practices

Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher, accused the company of copyright violations before his death, which authorities have confirmed as suicide.

Suchir Balaji, 26, left OpenAI in August 2024 after publicly criticizing the company's use of copyrighted material to train its AI models, including ChatGPT.
Authorities confirmed Balaji's death on November 26 as suicide, with no evidence of foul play discovered during the investigation.
Balaji's allegations included claims that OpenAI's reliance on copyrighted data undermined the internet ecosystem and violated fair use principles.
His concerns have contributed to ongoing lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft, brought by publishers and authors accusing them of copyright infringement.
OpenAI has denied the allegations, asserting that its data use adheres to fair use laws and is essential for innovation and competitiveness.