Elon Musk has supported the claims made by Poornima Ramarao, the mother of Suchir Balaji, after her son was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on November 26.
Balaji, a former employee of OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, had turned whistleblower and raised concerns about the company’s use of copyrighted data before his death.
His mother has cast doubt on the official ruling of suicide, suggesting foul play and calling for an FBI investigation.
In a post on X, Ramarao revealed that a private investigator and a second autopsy had been conducted, neither of which confirmed the police’s cause of death.
She claimed that Balaji’s apartment appeared to have been ransacked, with signs of a struggle in the bathroom and blood spots indicating a possible altercation. "It’s a cold blooded murder declared by authorities as suicide," she said and demanded further investigation.
"Lobbying in SF city doesn’t stop us from getting justices. We demand FBi investigation," she posted on X.
Elon Musk reacted to her post with a short but supportive comment: "This doesn’t seem like a suicide."
Balaji was found dead in his Buchanan Street apartment on November 26.
The news of his death sent shockwaves in the industry, especially given his outspoken views on artificial intelligence.
In an interview with The New York Times in October, he had accused OpenAI of violating copyright laws and argued that technologies like ChatGPT were harmful to the internet.
He also left his job at OpenAI, citing ethical concerns about contributing to a technology he believed would do more harm than good.
Before his death, Balaji had become a vocal critic of the AI industry. His mother highlighted how her son had become increasingly skeptical about AI’s impact on humanity. "He felt AI is a harm to humanity," she recalled.
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