Former OpenAI researcher turned whistleblower found dead in San Francisco

[midian182]

What just happened? Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old researcher who spent four years at OpenAI, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment last month. In an interview with The New York Times in October, Balaji expressed his concerns about how OpenAI allegedly used copyrighted data to train its AI models.

Balaji told the NYT that he quit OpenAI after four years at the company as he had realized generative AI would cause more harm than good. His biggest worry was the way OpenAI allegedly used copyrighted data for LLM training – something virtually every other AI startup has been accused of. He also believed its practices were damaging to the internet.

Balaji said he was skeptical that the "fair use" argument makes for a plausible defense for a lot of generative AI products.

"If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company," he told the publication.

I recently participated in a NYT story about fair use and generative AI, and why I'm skeptical "fair use" would be a plausible defense for a lot of generative AI products. I also wrote a blog post (https://t.co/xhiVyCk2Vk) about the nitty-gritty details of fair use and why I…

– Suchir Balaji (@suchirbalaji) October 23, 2024

Most AI firms point to the "fair use" argument when accused of copyright theft, be it in court or otherwise. Balaji also published a lengthy article on this topic on his personal blog in October. His conclusion was that he didn't believe ChatGPT's training data usage qualified as fair use, noting that similar arguments were not specific to ChatGPT and could be made for many generative AI products.

Balaji told the NYT that generative AI tools would make it impossible for organizations to stay commercially viable if their content was being used to train the systems.

Balaji's post also highlights the damage generative AI can have on online knowledge communities, pointing to the 12% decline in traffic to Stack Overflow after the release of ChatGPT.

The San Francisco Police Department told TechCrunch that Balaji was found dead in his apartment on November 26. Officers and medics had been called to his residence in the city's Lower Haight district to perform a wellness check. No evidence of foul play was discovered during the initial investigation.

"The manner of death has been determined to be suicide," David Serrano Sewell, executive director of San Francisco's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told CNBC.

"We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said an OpenAI spokesperson.

OpenAI is involved in several copyright lawsuits right now, the highest-profile being against The New York Times, which alleges the company and Microsoft, OpenAI's biggest investor, used its articles to train AI models such as ChatGPT without permission.

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Former OpenAI researcher turned whistleblower found dead in San Francisco

 

[Squid Surprise]

And here come the conspiracy theorists...

 

[wiyosaya]

And here come the conspiracy theorists...

Yes. It was an AI Controlled Boston Dynamics armed robot dog that did it after becoming sentient! /s

 

[Billybobjoey]

Seems like OpenAI's copying Boeing's homework.

 

[OortCloud]

In the post-truth Donald Trump world we seem to inhabit suddenly nothing would surprise me anymore.

 

[brucek]

An employee having an individual opinion as to how copyright law should intersect with AI training does not sound particularly legally relevant, especially if navigating this issue was not part of his role and he had no relevant qualifications such as I.e. being an IP lawyer.

If there was a contested fact as to whether OpenAI used NYT articles, and he was in a unique position to prove they did, perhaps that could maybe set up the conspiracy scenario where someone might wish him dead - but it doesn't sound like there's any real dispute nor a lack of ways it could be proved if there was.

 

[Kirby1]

As much as it seems like it's connected, he already voiced his concerns and was no longer at the company so killing him wouldn't change anything for OpenAI.

 

[Q Wales]

As much as it seems like it's connected, he already voiced his concerns and was no longer at the company so killing him wouldn't change anything for OpenAI.

Other than to warn others to keep their mouths shut. Sound like a bunch of gangstas to me.

 

[captaincranky]

Well, there was no polonium in his highball, and the window was closed, so case closed.

To the upside, look how far we've come as a society. Once upon a time, we simply used the newspaper to wrap the garbage in. Now, with the aid of AI, we can have "Alexa" read it to us while we're on the can, and we don't even have to struggle with turning the pages.

 

[Endymio]

Other than to warn others to keep their mouths shut. Sound like a bunch of gangstas to me.

Um, this "whistleblower" didn't tell us anything that the entire world didn't already know already, and countless other people were already protesting. But let's not allow facts to inferfere with a good conspiracy theory.

 

[captaincranky]

Um, this "whistleblower" didn't tell us anything that the entire world didn't already know already, and countless other people were already protesting. But let's not allow facts to inferfere with a good conspiracy theory.

No let's not. After all, we listened to, "the election was stolen" for four solid years. Why let a silly thing like facts get in the way of a "good story"?

 

[Endymio]

No let's not. After all we listened to, "the election was stolen" for four solid years. Why let facts get in the way of a "good story"?

And for even longer, we heard "the Russians hacked our elections" -- and conducted the largest investigation in US law enforcement history only to find out it was all a hoax.

 

[captaincranky]

And for even longer, we heard "the Russians hacked our elections" -- and conducted the largest investigation in US law enforcement history only to find out it was all a hoax.

Actually https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/...-statement-investigation-russian-interference

 

[Endymio]

Actually https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/...-statement-investigation-russian-interference

Actually, your own link clearly states the hoax had no basis: no collusion was found. And the total "election interference" was some poorly written social media ads that amounted to what the Clinton campaign was spending on social media every 65 seconds.

Meanwhile, China's election interference in the 2024 election was orders of magnitude larger than any interference in 2016. Will we see a media frenzy over that?

REUTERS: Chinese election influence operation targets US down-ballot races...."

"...
An army of Chinese-controlled social media bots is attempting to influence voters, while denigrating U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, according to new research...
The operation represents a coordinated interference effort against down-ballot races, experts say, in which the fake accounts are denigrating U.S. Representative Barry Moore of Alabama, U.S. Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn and Rubio, all Republicans...."

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/chinese-influence-operation-targets-us-down-ballot-races-microsoft-says-2024-10-23/

 

[captaincranky]

No, Russian interference >was< found. Mueller wouldn't go so far as to say there was "collusion with trimp" directly. Indictments were handed down. Since you're so fond of false equivalence arguments, consider this. But then Rudy Giuliani did most of whathisname's dirty work, and look where it got him.

"Meanwhile, China's election interference in the 2024 election was orders of magnitude larger than any interference in 2016. Will we see a media frenzy over that?

REUTERS: Chinese election influence operation targets US down-ballot races....""

Well of course we won't hear anything anything about that, trimp won. Remember, elections are only rigged when he loses.

And WTF does Hillary Clinton's campaign spending have to so with anything?

 

[Endymio]

Mueller wouldn't go so far as to say there was "collusion with trimp" directly. Indictments were handed down.

You're being disingenuous. Mueller stated explicitly there was no evidence of collusion, and no US citizen was indicted for anything involving election interference. The entire basis of the investigation was a hoax.

But you didn't answer the question: given China's election interference in 2024 was far larger than the trivial amount Russia engaged in 2016, why are you not demanding an investigation into it?

 

[captaincranky]

You're being disingenuous. Mueller stated explicitly there was no evidence of collusion, and no US citizen was indicted for anything involving election interference. The entire basis of the investigation was a hoax.

But you didn't answer the question: given China's election interference in 2024 was far larger than the trivial amount Russia engaged in 2016, why are you not demanding an investigation into it?

Indictments were handed down on Russians, in absentia. Let's get our "facts" straight.

Well first, because I patently don't care if you, Marco Rubio. or anyone else you mentioned drops dead tomorrow. Therefore, I who have obviously no authority to do so, couldn't be bothered starting one.

And as you stated in another post, "at least we agree that Joe Biden isn't".(POTUS). If that's true, then he couldn't start an investigation either.

So, what you need to do, is get out from behind your computer, grab a bullhorn, and march up and down in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., on Jan' 21st and demand action.

But wouldn't that make you the one pissing away money on something that substantively had no effect on any outcome? Gotta save those tax dollars, "baby elon needs a new pair of government contracts".

 

[Endymio]

Indictments were handed down on Russians, in absentia. Let's get our "facts" straight.

Russia -- and a dozen other countries -- "interfere" in every election for decades. The Mueller investigation was formed to investigate allegations of collusion by the Trump campaign -- that was found to a hoax. Let's get our facts straight.

I patently don't care if you, Marco Rubio. or anyone else you mentioned drops dead tomorrow.

So you only care about "election interference" if it's against a candidate you support. Got it.