The San Francisco Police Department has reportedly changed the status of the Suchir Balaji case from closed to “open and active investigation”, the San Francisco Standard reported adding that the department declined to share a full incident report. The new development comes as the 26-year-old former OpenAI researcher’s mother Poornima Rao reiterated that her son could not commit suicide and that it was a cold-blooded murder. She said her son’s apartment was ransacked and there were signs of struggle in the bathroom that suggested that he had been hit.
“We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death. Private autopsy doesn’t confirm the cause of death stated by police. Suchir’s apartment was ransacked, sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like some one hit him in bathroom based on blood spots. It’s a cold blooded mu*d*r declared by authorities as suicide. Lobbying in San Francisco city doesn’t stop us from getting justices. We demand FBi investigation.” Poornima Rao wrote on X.
Suchir Balaji was found dead in his apartment in San Francisco, months after accusing OpenAI of violating laws while developing ChatGPT. His death was ruled a suicide after the San Francisco Police Department found no evidence of ‘foul play’.
On October 24, before his death, Suchir Balaji expressed his skepticism about the “fair use” of generative artificial intelligence products.
‘My son was not okay with OpenAI becoming for-profit’
In a new interview with Mario Nawfal, Poornima Ramarao said Suchior was not okay with OpenAI becoming for-profit, “The reason he joined OpenAI was his belief that AI will help humanity. He was very impressed with OpenAI initially because they were nonprofit. His concern started to become wider as we learn now that when they went public. That’s when his concern started to arise, and he started questioning himself, as he’s mentioned in the interview,” Suchir’s mother said.
