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OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman has spoken publicly about the controversial death of whistleblower Suchir Balaji, who accused OpenAI of copyright violation. He described the incident as a “great tragedy” and defended the official ruling that the 26-year-old AI researcher died by suicide. Altman’s remarks came during an interview with Tucker Carlson—American conservative political commentator who hosted the nightly political talk show of Fox News from 2016-2013—, who insisted that Balaji’s death was a murder.

Suchir Balaji, an AI researcher of Indian origin, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in November 2024. His death came just weeks after he accused OpenAI of using copyrighted material—like books, articles etc.—in the training of  its language models without permission. Authorities, including the San Francisco Police and the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office, ruled it a suicide. They reported that he had died from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound. The apartment was locked from the inside, and investigators said they found no signs of foul play. A toxicology test also showed that alcohol was present in his system at the time of his death.

In the interview, Tucker Carlson questioned Sam Altman about Balaji’s earlier complaints against OpenAI. Carlson said, “One programmer accused your company of taking people’s work without paying for it, and later he was found dead. What really happened?”

Altman replied firmly, calling Balaji’s death a tragedy and repeating that he believed it was a suicide. When asked if he truly thought Balaji took his own life, Altman said, “I really do. He was like a friend of mine. This is like a guy that, not a close friend, but this is someone that worked at OpenAI for a very long time. I was really shaken by this tragedy. I spent a lot of time trying to, you know, read everything I could, as I’m sure you and others did too, about what happened. It looks like a suicide to me.”

Carlson kept pushing Altman, asking why he believed it was suicide. Altman answered that Balaji had bought the gun himself. Carlson disagreed, pointing to what he called “signs of a struggle,” such as broken surveillance wires and blood found in several rooms. He also mentioned that Balaji had recently ordered food and come back from a trip with friends, which, according to him, showed “no signs that he was suicidal.” Carlson added that Balaji’s mother believes her son was murdered.

Altman responded sharply: “I haven’t done too many interviews where I’ve been accused of murder.” He maintained his position that he had reviewed the case details extensively and that the evidence pointed to suicide.

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Despite the official ruling, Balaji’s family has repeatedly rejected the idea that he died by suicide. In a separate interview with Carlson, his mother, Poornima Ramarao, said, “Everyone is being silenced. Nobody is willing to speak the truth. Even the lawyers have been pressured to say it was a suicide.” She also mentioned that her son had become increasingly unhappy with artificial intelligence, especially OpenAI’s focus on commercialization through ChatGPT. According to her, the circumstances of his death didn’t seem normal.

Elon Musk, a longtime critic of Altman, also weighed in after the interview. Posting on X, Musk wrote, “He was murdered,” pointing to alleged inconsistencies in the investigation. Balaji’s parents have similarly claimed that a private autopsy revealed additional injuries and signs of a struggle, reinforcing their call for a transparent probe and FBI involvement.

Suchir Balaji, born in Florida on November 21, 1998, into an Indian-American family, was a talented computer scientist and programmer. A UC Berkeley graduate in computer science, he began coding at just 11 with the learning tool Scratch and built his own computer by the age of 13. During college, he interned at Scale AI in 2019 before joining OpenAI in 2021, where he worked for four years.  [Rh/VP]

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