OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has opened up a new Pandora's box when he appeared for an exclusive interview with a former Fox News anchor, Tucker Carlson, on his YouTube channel, talking about the mysterious death of his company’s former employee, Suchir Balaji.
During the heated debate over Suchir Balaji’s mysterious death, Carlson insisted that Balaji’s death was "definitely a murder", while Sam Altman termed it a suicide.
Soon after the interview was released on YouTube, Elon Musk didn't waste any time and jumped in; he posted on X with open claims that the researcher had been "murdered".
First thing first, let's get every detail: Who Suchir Balaj was?
Suchir Balajir was an Indian-origin AI researcher, more often termed as the "whistleblower of OpenAI," who had worked at OpenAI for four years.
Tragically, he was found dead in his apartment on November 25, 2024, just weeks after he had accused OpenAI of copyright violations.
Suchir Balaji was considered one of the key architects behind what we today know as the most amazing technology the human mind has ever produced-ChatGPT.
Whether it was a suicide or not, and what Altman really thinks of it, here’s a look at the concerns Sam Altman tried to answer in his interview.
Sam Altman spoke about the mysterious death of an AI researcher of his company when the host spoke about Balaji’s earlier complaints against OpenAI.
To which Sam Altman replied, “Also a great tragedy. He committed suicide.”
Carlos repeated his words, “Do you think he committed suicide?”
“I really do,” the tech giant and CEO of OpenAI answered.
He added, “He was like a friend of mine. 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.”
Soon after the interview was released on YouTube, Elon Musk didn’t waste any time and jumped in; he posted on X, with open claims that the researcher had been "murdered".
Musk wrote on X, “He was murdered.”
The relationship between Sam Altman and Elon Musk has become strained over the past few years.
Musk departed from the company’s board back in 2018 and has since been critical of OpenAI’s shift from a non-profit research lab to a “capped-profit” model.
