The medical examiner’s office determined the manner of death to be suicide and police officials this week said there is “currently, no evidence of foul play.”
Balaji’s death comes three months after he publicly accused OpenAI of violating U.S. copyright law while developing ChatGPT
The Mercury News [the writers of this article] and seven sister news outlets are among several newspapers, including the New York Times, to sue OpenAI in the past year.
The practice, he told the Times, ran afoul of the country’s “fair use” laws governing how people can use previously published work. In late October, he posted an analysis on his personal website arguing that point.
In a Nov. 18 letter filed in federal court, attorneys for The New York Times named Balaji as someone who had “unique and relevant documents” that would support their case against OpenAI. He was among at least 12 people — many of them past or present OpenAI employees — the newspaper had named in court filings as having material helpful to their case, ahead of depositions.
OpenAI has staunchly refuted those claims, stressing that all of its work remains legal under “fair use” laws.
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