A former OpenAI employee and whistleblower, Suchir Balaji, was found dead in his apartment last month, according to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Balaji, 26, was found dead when San Francisco police officers entered his apartment for a wellness check, the outlet reported. The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has confirmed Balaji as the deceased person, adding that his family has been notified.
The medical examiner’s office has classified the manner of death as a suicide and ruled that there is no evidence to suggest foul play.
Prior to his death, Balaji publicly accused OpenAI of violating U.S. copyright law with its generative AI application, ChatGPT. The California native joined the company as a researcher in 2022 but quickly became disillusioned with his work due to the workings of image and text generation programs.
Earlier this year, Balaji was featured in a piece from the New York Times in which he revealed what he believes are fair use violations that are committed regularly by the popular chatbot.
On November 18, the outlet filed a letter in federal court that named Balaji as an individual with “unique and relevant documents” that they would use in