SAN FRANCISCO – The parents of a former OpenAI researcher known for recently blowing the whistle on the company’s business practices are questioning the circumstances of their son’s death last month.

In an interview this week, Suchir Balaji’s mother and father expressed confusion and shock over his sudden passing, expressing doubt their son could have died by suicide, as determined by the county medical examiner.

The family hired an expert to perform an independent autopsy, but has yet to release the report’s findings.

“We’re demanding a thorough investigation — that’s our call,” said Balaji’s mother, Poornima Ramarao.

San Francisco police found Balaji dead in his Lower Haight apartment on Nov. 26, less than a week after his 26th birthday.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office later told this news agency his death was ruled a suicide, though a final autopsy report has yet to be released while the office completes toxicology tests. Earlier this month, San Francisco police officials said there is “currently, no evidence of foul play.”

Balaji’s death sent shockwaves throughout Silicon Valley and the artificial intelligence industry.

He garnered a national spotlight in late October when he accused his former employer, OpenAI, of breaking federal copyright law by siphoning data from across the internet to train its blockbuster chatbot, ChatGPT.

His concerns backed up allegations aired in recent years by authors, screenwriters and computer programmers who say OpenAI stole their content without permission, in violation of U.S. “fair use” laws governing how people can use previously published work.

Media companies have been among those to sue the company, including The Mercury News and seven of its affiliated newspapers, and, separately, The New York Times.

Poornima Ramarao, mother of Suchir Balaji, speaks to this new organization in her home in Union City, Calif., on Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. Suchir Balaji, 26, is a former OpenAI researcher known for whistleblowing the blockbuster artificial intelligence company who was found dead in his apartment this past Nov.. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) 

In an interview with The New York Times published in October 2024, Balaji described his decision to leave the generative artificial intelligence company in August, while suggesting that its data collection practices are “not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole.

“If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” he told the newspaper.

By Nov. 18, Balaji had been named in court filings as someone who had “unique and relevant documents” that would support the case against OpenAI. He was among at least 12 people — many of them past or present OpenAI employees — to be named by the newspaper in court filings as having material helpful to their case.

His death a week later has left Balaji’s parents reeling.

In an interview at their Alameda County home this week, his mother said her only child “was an amazing human being, from childhood.”

“No one believes that he could do that,” Ramarao said about him taking his own life.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a statement to Business Insider said it was “devastated” to learn of Balaji’s death, and said they had been in touch with his parents “to offer our full support during this difficult time.”

“Our priority is to continue to do everything we can to assist them,” the company’s statement read. “We first became aware of his concerns when The New York Times published his comments and we have no record of any further interaction with him.

“We respect his, and others’, right to share views freely,” the statement added. “Our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones, and we extend our deepest condolences to all who are mourning his loss.”

Born in Florida and raised in the Bay Area, Balaji was a prodigy from an early age, his mother told this news agency. He spoke her name at 3 months old; at 18-months he would ask “me to light a lamp to cheer me up,” and could recognize words at 20 months, she said.

Balaji appeared to have a knack for technology, math and computing, taking home trophies and earning renown, including in the 2016 United States of America Computing Olympiad.

In 2020, he went to work for OpenAI – viewing the company’s then-commitment to operating as a nonprofit as admirable, his mother said. His opinion of the company soured in 2022, while he was assigned to gather data from the internet for the company’s GPT-4 program, the New York Times reported. The program analyzed text from nearly the entire internet to train its artificial intelligence program, the outlet reported.

Ramarao said she wasn’t aware of her son’s decision to go public with his concerns about OpenAI until the paper ran his interview. While she immediately harbored anxiety about his decision — going so far as to implore him to speak with a copyright attorney — Ramarao also expressed pride in her son’s bravery.

‘He kept assuring me, ‘Mom, I’m not doing anything wrong — go see the article. I’m just saying, my opinion, there’s nothing wrong in it,” said Ramarao, herself a former employee of Microsoft who worked on its Azure cloud computing program. “I supported him. I didn’t criticize him. I told him, ‘I’m proud of you, because you have your own opinions and you know what’s right, what’s wrong.’ He was very ethical.”

After leaving the company, Balaji settled on plans to create a nonprofit, one centering on the machine learning and neurosciences fields, Ramarao said. He had already spoken to at least one venture capitalist for seed funding, she said.

“I’m asking, like, ”How will you manage your living?’,” Ramarao said. She recalled how her son repeatedly tried to assuage any concerns about his finances, suggesting that “money is not important to me — I want to offer a service to humanity.”

Balaji also appeared to be keeping a busy schedule. He turned 26 while on a backpacking trip in the Catalina Islands with several friends from high school. Such trips were commonplace for him – in April, he went with several friends to Patagonia and South America.

Balaji last spoke to his parents on Nov. 22, a 10-minute phone call that centered around his recent trip and that ended with him talking about getting dinner.

“He was very happy,” Ramarao said. “He had a blast. He had one of the best times of his life.”

Parents of Suchir Balaji, Poornima Ramarao, left, and Ramamurthy Balaji, right, hold a photograph of their son from 2022, in their home in Union City, Calif., on Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. Suchir Balaji, 26, is a former OpenAI researcher known for whistleblowing the blockbuster artificial intelligence company who was found dead in his apartment this past Nov.. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) 

Ramarao remembers calling her son shortly after noon on Nov. 23, but said it rang once and went to voicemail. Figuring that he was busy with friends, she didn’t try visiting his apartment until Nov. 25, when she knocked but got no answer. She said she called authorities that evening, but was allegedly told by a police dispatch center that little could be done that day. She followed up Nov. 26, and San Francisco police later found Balaji’s body inside his apartment.

Ramarao said she wasn’t told of her son’s death until a stretcher appeared in front of Balaji’s apartment. She was not allowed inside until the following day.

“I can never forget that tragedy,” Ramarao said. “My heart broke.”

Ramarao questioned authorities’ investigation of her son’s death, claiming that San Francisco police closed their case and turned it over to the county medical examiner’s office within an hour of discovering Balaji’s body.

Ramarao said she and her husband have since commissioned a second autopsy of Balaji’s body. She declined to release any documents from that examination. Her attorney, Phil Kearney, declined to comment on the results of the family’s independent autopsy.

Last week, San Francisco police spokesman Evan Sernoffsky referred questions about the case to the medical examiner’s office. David Serrano Sewell, executive director of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, declined to comment.

Sitting on her living room couch, Ramarao shook her head and expressed frustration at authorities’ investigative efforts so far.

“As grieving parents, we have the right to know what happened to our son,” Ramarao said. “He was so happy. He was so brave.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with feelings of depression or suicidal thoughts, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers free, round-the-clock support, information and resources for help. Call or text the lifeline at 988, or see the 988lifeline.org website, where chat is available.