Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former OpenAI researcher, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment recently, CNBC confirmed. The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the cause of death as suicide, with police reporting no signs of foul play during their investigation on November 26.

Balaji, who left OpenAI earlier this year, publicly accused the company of violating U.S. copyright law while developing ChatGPT. “If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” Balaji told The New York Times in October. He argued that AI models like ChatGPT could undermine the creators of digital content used to train such systems.

Sam Altman.

OpenAI expressed condolences following the news. “We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today, and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones,” a company spokesperson said.

OpenAI remains entangled in ongoing lawsuits with publishers, authors, and artists over the alleged use of copyrighted material to train its AI systems. One lawsuit filed last December seeks billions in damages from OpenAI and its major backer, Microsoft.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously defended the company’s practices, stating, “We don’t need to train on their data. Any one particular training source doesn’t move the needle for us that much.”

Balaji’s death was first reported by the San Jose Mercury News. A family member requested privacy as the tragedy continues to unfold.