Suchir Balaji, a former employee-turned-whistleblower of the American tech company OpenAI, allegedly died by suicide in San Francisco on November 26. Reports of his alleged suicide under reportedly mysterious circumstances have started a storm in the tech and AI world.
Whistleblower Dies By Suicide
The Indian-origin man accused the Microsoft-backed company of violating copyright laws. This comes at a time, when OpenAI, under the leadership of Sam Altman is looking to turn the company into a for-profit organisation.
Meanwhile, comments made by Altman’s biggest, bitter rival in the field, Elon Musk, are now being underscored.
In an interview to former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, Musk raised questions on the company’s rectitude over its move to move away from its non-profit origins.
‘Don’t Trust Sam Altman’
He also cast aspersions on the company and Sam Altman himself. In the interview, he said, “I don’t trust OpenAI. I started OpenAI as a non-profit open source. I named the company. It used to be open source but now it is extremely closed source and maximally profit.”
Furthermore, putting major emphasis on his former colleague and now rival Sam Altman, he said, “I don’t trust Sam Altman and I don’t think we want to have the most powerful AI in the world controlled by someone who is not trustworthy.”
OpenAI’s Copyright Conundrum
The copyright accusations come to pass, when Altman-led company has been embroiled in multiple litigations from major publications over OpenAI’s use of their content to train its AI model.
The company was sued by The New York Times in December 2023 over violation of copyright. Subsequently, other American newspapers including Mercury News, Denver Post, Orange County Register and St Paul Pioneer-Press, Orlando Sentinel South Florida Sun took OpenAI to court. In addition, India’s biggest news agency, ANI also took the company to court over copyright violation.
Musk’s Cryptic Post
In addition to these comments, Elon Musk also took to X to react to the death of Suchir Balaji. Musk chose a cryptic means to respond to the issue.
In his post, Musk said, “Hmm”, refraining from making any major statement.
