‘Struggle in bathroom, pendrive missing’: Death of OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji a suicide or murder?

San Francisco police are investigating the death of 26-year-old Suchir Balaji, an Indian-origin former employee of the artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, initially reported as a suicide. New evidence, however, hints at murder.

OpenAI whistleblower Balaji was found dead inside his Buchanan Street apartment in San Francisco on November 26 on Thanksgiving Day. According to News 18, a probe into the case revealed that there were no CCTV cameras at the apartment where his body was found.

Meanwhile, Balaji's mother, Poornima Rao, claimed that Suchir’s apartment was ransacked. It was also believed that Suchir’s cupboards and drawers were searched. A pen drive was also missing from his place, News 18 reported.

Rao claimed there was a “sign of struggle in the bathroom, and it looked like someone hit him in the bathroom based on blood spots. (sic)”

Rao informed that she hired a private investigator and “did a second autopsy to throw light on the cause of death”. But a “private autopsy didn't confirm the cause of death stated by police.”

“It’s a cold-blooded mu*d*r declared by authorities as suicide,” Rao said in a post on X on December 29. She also demanded an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Police are yet to share an official report of Suchir’s autopsy but say the former OpenAI employee shot himself and died by suicide on December 14, 2024, News 18 reported.

The medical examiner’s office determined the manner of death to be suicide, and police officials said there is “currently, no evidence of foul play.”

However, investigative journalist George Webb, who visited Suchir Balaji’s apartment with his parents, told News18 that it was a murder committed by one person.

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk backed the allegation of foul play in the death of the 26-year-old former OpenAI researcher. In response to Poornima Rao's post on X, Elon Musk stated, “This doesn't seem like a suicide.”

Balaji left OpenAI because...

Balaji’s death came three months after he publicly accused OpenAI of violating US copyright law while developing ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence programme that has become a money-making sensation used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

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

The New York Times reported that Balaji left OpenAI because he no longer wanted to contribute to technologies that he believed would do society more harm than benefit.

“If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” he told the outlet, adding that “this is not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole.”