Elon Musk Reacts To Open AI's Whistleblower's Death, Says 'Doesn ...
Suchir, a 26-year-old former OpenAI employee, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on November 26. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has responded to a plea from the mother of Suchir Balaji, stating, “This doesn’t seem like a suicide,” after she called for an FBI investigation into her son's death. Balaji, who had accused an AI giant of copyright violations, was found dead a month after his allegations came to light.
Details of the Case
Balaji, a 26-year-old whistleblower and researcher, was discovered deceased in his San Francisco apartment on November 26. Authorities initially ruled his death a suicide. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Balaji's mother, Poornima Ramarao, shared that they had hired a private investigator and conducted a second autopsy to further investigate the cause of death.
According to Ramarao, the results of the private autopsy did not align with the police’s conclusion. She also claimed that Balaji’s apartment on Buchanan Street had been "ransacked" before his death. "There was a sign of struggle in the bathroom, and it looks like someone hit him in the bathroom based on blood spots," she said. "It’s a cold-blooded murder declared by authorities as suicide. Lobbying in SF city won’t stop us from getting justice," she added, demanding an FBI probe.
Elon Musk's Response
In her post, Ramarao tagged Musk and Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, both key allies of the incoming Donald Trump administration. Musk, known for his ongoing feud with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, responded to the post, stating, “This doesn’t seem like a suicide.”
Balaji had accused OpenAI of using copyrighted data in an interview with the New York Times, claiming that technologies like ChatGPT were damaging the Internet. Balaji, who worked at OpenAI and helped train its AI models, had resigned from the company in August 2024 due to concerns about its ethical practices regarding data handling.
