OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji found dead in US apartment
San Francisco: Suchir Balaji, a former Artificial Intelligence (AI) researcher at OpenAI, was found dead in his Buchanan Street apartment on November 26. The 26-year-old, who reportedly died by suicide, was known for his criticisms of OpenAI’s practices and his allegations of copyright violations by the company.
The San Francisco Police Department stated that their initial investigation found no evidence of foul play. Balaji had worked with OpenAI from November 2020 to August 2024, as per his LinkedIn profile.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who has had a contentious relationship with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, responded cryptically to the news on X (formerly Twitter) with a post that simply read "hmm."
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2024
In October, Balaji had publicly accused OpenAI of breaching copyright laws and criticised generative AI products like ChatGPT for potentially harming the internet and violating fair use principles. Speaking to The New York Times, he urged others to leave the company if they shared his beliefs.
In a detailed blog post, Balaji had dissected the fair use doctrine, arguing that ChatGPT and similar products do not pass the four-factor test for fair use, especially in their impact on the market value of copyrighted works. He noted, "None of the four factors seem to weigh in favour of ChatGPT being a fair use of its training data."
Balaji was involved in AI research for four years, including work on ChatGPT for a year and a half. He had raised concerns about generative AI substituting original data, leading to legal and ethical questions. His public statements had sparked discussions on the implications of generative AI on copyright and internet use.
I recently participated in a NYT story about fair use and generative AI, and why I'm skeptical "fair use" would be a plausible defense for a lot of generative AI products. I also wrote a blog post (https://t.co/xhiVyCk2Vk) about the nitty-gritty details of fair use and why I…
— Suchir Balaji (@suchirbalaji) October 23, 2024
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Three company directors held in Rs 100-crore investment fraud in Kochi
Kochi (Kerala) (PTI): Police on Sunday arrested three directors of a firm accused of cheating hundreds of investors of over Rs 100 crore through a fake investment scheme linked to agricultural tourism here, officials said.
The accused were identified as Muraleedharan, Ashik Murali and Akhil Murali, all natives of Thrissur.
The arrests were made by the Kalamassery police in connection with a fraud involving ATCOS (Agri Tourism Cooperative Society), a firm headquartered at Pathadipalam here.
Police said the company had promised high returns by collecting investments from the public in the agricultural tourism sector, but allegedly cheated hundreds of people and fled with the money.
ATCOS was registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and operated 13 branches across various districts in Kerala, besides a branch in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, officials said.
When investors failed to receive their promised returns or the invested amount, complaints were filed with the police.
Officials said around 54 cases have been registered against the firm in 32 police stations across the state, including 29 cases at the Kalamassery police station alone.
Following instructions from Kochi City Police Commissioner K S Mahesh Kumar, a special investigation team was formed under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Shehensha and Thrikkakara ACP Manoj Kumar.
The team traced the accused to an apartment in Amala Nagar in Thrissur, where they had been hiding after secretly renting the flat, officials said.
The bank accounts of the accused have been frozen, and steps have been initiated to trace their assets, officials said.
Police also conducted a raid at the company’s office at Pathadipalam and seized several documents related to the case.
The accused were produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kalamassery, which remanded them to judicial custody and sent them to Kakkanad jail.
Police said they would seek the custody of the accused for further interrogation as the investigation continues.
