Parents Of Dead OpenAI Whistleblower Sue San Francisco, Alleging Murder Cover-Up
The household of Suchir Balaji state he was killed and didn't kill himself. Now they have actually taken legal action against San Francisco and its police department.
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The parents of departed OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji have taken legal action against the city of San Francisco and the San Francisco Police Department, declaring that the real reason for his death was not suicide, however murder.
The claim, filed in January, alleges that the SFPD covered up the crime, ruling it a suicide without conducting a thorough examination.
Balaji, who had worked as a scientist at OpenAI, was discovered dead in his San Francisco house last November. Attorneys state Balaji's parents, Poornima Ramarao and wiki.vst.hs-furtwangen.de Balaji Ramamurthy, asked for even more investigation into his death however were told the case was already closed.
"The claim demands that the city, police department, and medical examiner release public files kept under the Public Records Act," Joseph Goethals, attorney for the petitioners, informed Decrypt. He said that if the files weren't provided within 10 days, and "no valid exceptions use, a claim can oblige their release. We will look for a court order to obtain them."
The claim claims that SFPD violated the California Public Records Act by unlawfully withholding public records of the case. Attorneys for Ramarao and Ramamurthy also argued that the examination into their son's death was rushed and insufficient, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de with authorities overlooking essential forensic findings and failing to address their ask for akropolistravel.com more inquiry.
The claim requires the immediate disclosure of all reports, pictures, and videos, together with protection of legal costs.
Said Geothals: "If the San Francisco Superior Court does not interpret and enforce the law correctly, we will seek option with the Court of Appeal. We hope it doesn't pertain to that."
Balaji worked for OpenAI from November 2020 to August 2024. In an interview with The New york city Times in October, he said that before the general public launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, he had actually helped OpenAI gather and utilize "huge amounts" of information taken from the web without consent.
According to the claim, in December, Balaji's household worked with forensic pathologist Dr. Joseph Cohen to perform a personal autopsy. In his report, Dr. Cohen figured out that there was a single gunshot wound in the mid-forehead, somewhat to the right of the bridge of his nose.
Dr. Cohen said that the bullet trajectory was uncommon for a suicide, as it took a trip downward at a small left-to-right angle, entirely missing the brain before lodging in the brainstem, according to the fit. Dr. Cohen identified a contusion on the back of Balaji's head, which he said raised further questions about the situations of his death.
The San Francisco Police Department did not instantly react to a request for comment by Decrypt.
The claim called out the scenarios of Bilaji's death. His body was found a week after The New York Times discussed the whistleblower in a related to its claim against OpenAI.
Despite Balaji's revelations, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pushed back on the New York Times' claims. Speaking at the newspaper's annual DealBook Summit, Altman dismissed the claims.