ERASED? OpenAI seemingly wipes references to dead whistleblower Suchir Balaji from ChatGPT
Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former OpenAI employee and vocal critic of generative AI's legal and ethical challenges, died by suicide in his San Francisco apartment on November 26, authorities confirmed.
FollowOpenAI has seemingly scrubbed all references to Suchir Balaji, the whistleblower who died in mysterious circumstances, from ChatGPT. Suchir had recently emerged as a key witness in The New York Times' landmark lawsuit against OpenAI, possessing "unique and relevant documents." His expertise in ChatGPT's training data made him perhaps the most credible voice challenging Big Tech's AI practices.
When asked about him, the ChatGPT responds, "I could not locate any publicly available information indicating that an individual named "Suchir Balaji" worked at OpenAI. OpenAI does not publish detailed personnel lists in most cases, so it can be challenging to confirm the employment details or roles of individuals who are not in public-facing positions. Without publicly accessible information or confirmation from the individual or from OpenAI, it's difficult to determine whether Suchir Balaji worked there or the scope of their involvement.”
When asked the same question to Grok, Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude, here's what it answered, "Suchir Balaji was indeed an employee at OpenAI. He worked there as an artificial intelligence researcher for nearly four years. His involvement included significant contributions to the development of ChatGPT. He was part of the team that gathered and organized the internet data used to train the chatbot. His work on projects like WebGPT was instrumental in laying the groundwork for ChatGPT. Balaji left the company in August 2024, after expressing concerns about OpenAI's practices, particularly regarding the use of copyrighted material for training AI models."
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Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former OpenAI employee and vocal critic of generative AI's legal and ethical challenges, died by suicide in his San Francisco apartment on November 26, authorities confirmed.
Balaji, an Indian-origin computer scientist, was widely known for his contributions to artificial intelligence during his four-year tenure at OpenAI, where he worked on the groundbreaking ChatGPT for 1.5 years. However, in recent months, he gained attention for his outspoken views on the implications of generative AI, particularly around copyright law and fair use.
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