New Delhi:
The parents of Suthir Balaji, a former employee of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, claimed that his autopsy showed signs of a struggle, including a head injury. Balaji, 26, who had raised ethical concerns about OpenAI’s capabilities after leaving the artificial intelligence giant, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in November. Authorities said he died by suicide.
Balaji’s parents, Balaji Ramamurthy and Purnima Rao, spoke to NDTV about their son’s tragic death and their fight for justice.
Her mother said, “When I read the results of the second autopsy, there were signs of a struggle, including head trauma, and the details of the autopsy revealed that it was a homicide.”
Reflecting on his last conversation with his son, Ramamurthy said, “My son came back from a birthday trip from Los Angeles with friends and seemed happy.He told me he wanted to go to Las Vegas for CES (technology show).” “It was,” he said. ) In January, he said he was going to dinner.
Born and raised in California, Suthiru Balaji worked at OpenAI as a researcher for nearly four years. He resigned in August after protesting the AI giant’s business practices. Still alleges that OpenAI violates U.S. copyright law, raising concerns in a New York Times report titled “Former OpenAI researcher says company violates copyright law.” expressed.
Rao said Suchil is among the top 10 in the artificial intelligence industry. “Why was he going to quit OpenAI and leave the AI industry? He was going to start something in neuroscience and machine learning. Our suspicion is that he was threatened by OpenAI. “Maybe they oppressed him. He didn’t find another job, maybe they threatened him,” she said.
Still’s mother said he consulted a copyright lawyer who determined that he had done nothing wrong and was simply being repressed. “That’s what led him to do the New York Times interview,” she said.
She said Still told her he was working on the research and would publish it when it was ready. “In his publication, he uses mathematical evidence to explain that the modulated answer is not as per the information supplied to ChatGPT.”
Rao said Suchil told him that “the works of artists and journalists are being stolen[by ChatGPT]and it’s very unethical.” “I also agreed with him. He wasn’t fighting OpenAI, he was defending humanity. He said in his article that he thought AI would be beneficial to humanity, but that It is said to be more harmful.”
Suchil’s mother advised him to increase support for his cause and said she is working on it. The 26-year-old’s parents said they believed the information Suchil had could have led to a turning point in the AI industry. “We believe so. We now know it was a power play. We also have the autopsy report and he did not lose his life. As for who did and why. , we need to investigate,” Rama Rao said.
Earlier, X president Elon Musk and OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk expressed their support for Suteru Balaji’s parents. When Rao wrote in the X that his son’s murder was being passed off as a suicide, Musk responded, “I don’t think this is a suicide.” Rama Rao said this is a great support for them, but clarified that they have not been contacted yet.
Still’s mother called for an FBI investigation into her son’s death, saying, “They must get to the bottom of it and bring justice to my son. Precious lives have been lost. It’s a loss to the technology industry. “He was incredibly smart.” , his former boss says he tweaked algorithms and found ways to make things easier, which had a huge impact on ChatGPT, OpenAI continues to say we support parents. However, I wonder how they support it. ”
Still’s parents said they also contacted Indian authorities in the United States and were assured of assistance. “We hope that the Indian government will support us and speak up for us.”
