Mother of OpenAI Whistleblower Accuses Law Enforcement, OpenAI of Delaying Justice for Her Son

Written by Derrick Broze

The parents of Suchir Balaji are calling for a federal investigation into the death of their son who was found dead only months after blowing the whistle on OpenAI.

The sweetest person. A prodigy at the age of 14.

That's how Poornima Ramarao describes her son, Suchir Balaji, the now deceased whistleblower who recently made waves after he publicly spoke out against his former employer, OpenAI.

Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on the 26th of November. San Francisco police discovered his body after his family requested a wellness check because they could not contact him. The San Francisco medical examiner's office quickly deemed the death a suicide and police claimed there were no signs of foul play.

Poornimao as well as Suchir's father, Balaji Ramamurthy, were immediately skeptical of the claim of suicide and begin their own investigation into their son's death. They were especially concerned because Suchir recently went public as a whistleblower against his former employer, OpenAI.

Suchir was helping OpenAI develop their popular ChatGPT artificial intelligence app when he grew disillusioned with what he claimed were ethical violations. He was working as a senior member of the WebGPT project which turned into ChatGPT. Suchir would also help train ChatGPT in his final months at OpenAI.

By late October he published an essay on his website expressing his concerns that ChatGPT was improperly being trained by on copyrighted material. That same day The New York Times released an interview with him detailing concerns. He told the Times that he no longer wanted to contribute to technologies that he believed could harm society.

“If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” he told The New York Times.

His mother says after he quit OpenAI she warned him about speaking out on his own, fearing that he might have trouble finding a new job. However, Suchir told his mother he was planning on launching a startup company. He was also slated to be a central witness in The New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft.

"We have yet to uncover what made him go to New York Times to speak against them. Was he trying to protect himself by going public? We need to explore that," Poornimao Rao told The Last American Vagabond. "But he did go to New York Times on October 23rd and he publicly said OpenAI is violating copyright data."

One way or the other, by November 26th, Suchir was dead by an alleged suicide.

Signs of a Struggle Debunk the Suicide Claim

His mother says the family paid for a second private autopsy which revealed that Suchir was shot on the left side of his head. The family also discovered signs of struggle, including multiple pools of blood.

"Then how is that possible in a suicide, right?," she asked.

"And also the angle of the bullet was not, it's not suicidal at all. It was a downward angle at the middle of the forehead."

Ramarao says she told the SF police that their son was in a "happy mood" right before he died and had just returned from a birthday trip with friends. She says her family gave the police contact numbers for Suchir's friends, as well as the details of the second autopsy. The police have thus far declined to change their conclusions.

She says her family waited for about five weeks for someone from the police department to come investigate their son's apartment. Eventually, they hired their own Crime Scene Investigator. The family also allowed independent investigator George Webb to document in the inside of Suchir's apartment.

"The apartment was ransacked. Blood trails suggest he was crawling out of the bathroom, trying to seek help," Webb told India Today after the walk through of the apartment.

Ramarao said the police have only considered evidence which indicates a suicide and refused to look at evidence that the family believes indicates sign of a struggle and homicide.

The family called the Chief Medical Examiner's Office and spoke with we the executive director who seemed reluctant to look at the evidence that the family found at Suchir's apartment.

"We hired a private investigator who's a former police officer," Poornimao Ramarao says with understandable frustration. "We wanted to get the body cam from the police and other details."

Ramarao says the family sent pictures of the apartment and the second autopsy report to a former director of the FBI who is assisting them in the investigation.

The family received a break over the last week as Tucker Carlson interviewed Ramarao and San Francisco Representative Ro Khanna expressed support for the family's investigation.

"I do believe that there should be a full and transparent investigation into the death by the FBI or appropriate agency," Khanna tweeted.

What Did Suchir Balaji Know?

Beyond his role as the star witness in The New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI, there is a realistic possibility that Suchir had deeper concerns regarding ChatGPT and AI in general. Poornimao Ramarao does not believe copyright violations would be a strong enough motivation for someone to take Suchir's life.

" Logically speaking, OpenAI would not be concerned about copyright," she stated. "These are big corporations. They can pay fines. Even if they lose, they're not going to bother."

"He was named as custodian witness on November 18 by New York Times for their lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft," Ramarao recounts.

"If Suchir (was) deposed, they were scared he'll bring out some ugly truth that no one knows about -- they silenced him."

She says her family has heard from former OpenAI employees who know things about the company but are not speaking out publicly.

"If he were alive, there were a lot of secrets that will come out. That's exactly why we wanted FBI to investigate and see what were their afraid of."

His mother says Suchir's "pen drive" (also known as a USB or flash drive) was missing, and his computer was left open.

"  His computer was left open. He had a password, and how can his computer be open? The officers were able to look into it," she said. "We are yet to do forensic on his computer... He's very smart and very secretive. We are yet to find out where he has put the documents, where he has put any additional evidence."

"We need to get it out. We don't have it with us yet."

The family plans to continue to seek public support for a new investigation into the death of their son.

The Sam Altman Connection

For those looking for conspiracies in this situation, it's not hard to find them. OpenAI is a rising corporation mostly due to the popularity of the ChatGPT tool which Suchir Balaji helped develop. There is currently no evidence that anyone at OpenAI or CEO Sam Altman are involved in the coverup of Balaji's death. However, if something was discovered which could derail this rapid rise to industry dominance and financial gain, it is possible that leadership at OpenAI would seek to suppress such information.

In recent months Altman has gained new influence which could allow him to impede the investigation into Suchir's death.

In early November, San Francisco's new Mayor, Daniel Lurie, named Sam Altman as one of seven co-chairs of his transition team. While the move is another sign of Silicon Valley CEOs' influence on California politics, it is also a concerning development for the family of Suchir Balaji who fear that the proximity of the CEO of their son's former company to the San Francisco political authorities may delay the truth from being known.

" That's exactly the reason why we are not getting any help from local authorities," Poornima Ramarao said. "Sam Altman is the lead for transition for the new mayor. He's his friend. So where will the help come from?"

Sam Altman has been a controversial figure in Silicon Valley and in the world of artificial intelligence. In May 2023 he testified in front of the U.S. Senate calling for regulation of his industry.

Only days after his testimony, Sam Altman participated in the secretive Bilderberg Group meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. Altman was joined by fellow AI proponents and CEO’s, including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Deepmind’s Demis Hassabis, and former Google CEO and Bilderberg Steering Committee Member Eric Schmidt.

Sam Altman and fellow AI CEO’s were also joined by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, BP chief Bernard Looney, Børge Brende, the President of the World Economic Forum, and co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Peter Thiel.

Altman has also been involved in the privacy threatening, universal basic income promoting project known as Worldcoin.

Worldcoin

Sam Altman and fellow technocrat Elon Musk have a history of collaboration at OpenAI, as well as warning about the potential dangers related to the rapid rise in use of the technology. However, despite warnings, both men continue to fund projects which have the potential to contribute to the rise of the Technocratic State, with AI powering biometric digital identities, digital currencies, and the Internet of Things/Bodies.

For example, one day before Altman testified to Congress ,the Financial Times reported that Altman was “close to securing around $100mn in funding for his plan to use iris-scanning technology to create a secure global cryptocurrency called Worldcoin”. The Times said three people with knowledge of the deal claimed the team behind Worldcoin is in “advanced talks” to raise the funds in the “next few weeks”.

The source told the Times that the funding is coming from existing and new investors. Previously reported investors in the project includes FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and internet entrepreneur Reid Hoffman.

Altman has promoted the project as a way to prepare for the disruption AI is anticipated to cause to a number of industries. Worldcoin executives have stated that their work is focused on helping distinguish between humans and bots by providing a unique ID and providing a universal basic income to offset job losses caused by AI.

Altman and team have called Worldcoin an “inclusive” global cryptocurrency that will be available to anyone who verifies their “unique personhood” with the “Orb,” a device that scans an individuals unique iris pattern.

“The Orb checks that an individual is real and is unique or has not previously signed up for Worldcoin. It does this by capturing and processing images of an individual and their unique iris pattern,” Worldcoin explains on its website.

Once a user submits to biometric iris scans they are assigned a “World ID” that allows them to receive 25 free Worldcoin tokens at launch of the token. The company claims once the unique identity is created the iris scans are deleted.

While the project is being touted as a method of softening the blow of AI disruption, it’s clear that such a project also mimics calls for digital identity using biometrics that are being proposed by the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and a growing number of international governments. Perhaps, Altman and his cohorts believe the technology will be used for good in their hands, but the relationship to the Bilderberg Group, Silicon Valley, and Elon Musk are — at the very least — a cause for concern and reflection.