‘Unusual activity on his devices…’ — OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji was planning legal action before death: Family

Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old Indian-origin former employee of the artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, who allegedly died by suicide in San Francisco, was planning legal action before death, revealed his family.

The family has also claimed that unusual activity was noted on his devices after his death, and said that someone so bold and self-assured wouldn’t take such a step.

On November 26, which is Thanksgiving Day, Suchir Balaji was found dead inside his Buchanan Street apartment in San Francisco.

Months before his death, he had accused OpenAI of violating US copyright law while developing ChatGPT.

However, police officials said there was no evidence of foul play.

Meanwhile, Poornima Ramarao, the mother of Suchir, has claimed that he had compiled evidence to support his claims and had arranged interviews with major media outlets.

“He told me he was working on personal research,” reported The Times of India, quoting Poornima.

“He was ready to go public in a big way,” his mother added.

While stating that he wouldn’t take his own life, the family said that Suchir reportedly had a document outlining his accusations and legal strategy.

The family has also expressed doubts about the circumstances of his death, claiming unusual activity on his devices after his death.

“We are investigating who accessed his desktop,” Poornima said.

Two days ago, in a post on X, Suchir Balaji's mother demanded an FBI investigation into her son's death.

“We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death. Private autopsy doesn’t confirm 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 SF city doesn’t stop us from getting justices,” she said in a post.

Responding to a post, Elon Musk supported Poornima Rao's claim of “cold-blooded murder” saying, “This doesn’t seem like a suicide.”

In an interview with the New York Times published on October 23, Balaji argued that OpenAI was harming businesses and entrepreneurs whose data were used to train ChatGPT.

Balaji left OpenAI because he no longer wanted to contribute to technologies that he believed would bring society more harm than benefit, the report added.