
Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher, tragically passed away in San Francisco under mysterious circumstances. Balaji had worked at OpenAI for four years, contributing significantly to the development of the company’s language models. However, in 2024, Balaji left OpenAI due to growing ethical concerns, particularly regarding the company’s data practices. He became disillusioned with how OpenAI used vast amounts of data scraped from the internet, much of which was copyrighted. Balaji voiced his belief that OpenAI’s data-gathering methods violated copyright laws, especially as the company moved from research to more commercially driven operations
Balaji’s resignation followed a period of intense personal reflection. He noted that as OpenAI transitioned to a major commercial player, its model of scraping data from sites like Reddit, paywalled content, and even copyrighted books no longer seemed defensible. His whistleblowing centered around the long-term damage he saw AI systems like ChatGPT causing to the digital ecosystem, undermining the value of original content creators
He believed the company’s actions were increasingly problematic as it commodified its AI models. Balaji’s departure from OpenAI was marked by a growing public concern about how such practices could shape the future of artificial intelligence and copyright laws globally.