The OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji death mystery deepens every day as his mother Poornima Rao has claimed that she sensed her son’s life was in danger after he began his whistleblowing activities against the AI giant last year.
26-year-old Balaji, a former researcher with OpenAI, was found dead in his San Francisco Apartment in November 2024, with a gunshot wound. The local police have dubbed his death as suicide based on autopsy reports and closed the file yet Balaji’s parents have alleged foul play.
Now, in an interview with Brian Entin of News Nation, the parents of Suchir Balaji have claimed that they first sensed danger for their son, was when he was featured in a New York Times article last year, where he criticized the copyright policies of his former employer OpenAI.
During the interview, Balaji’s mother Poornima described a chilling moment when she felt something was wrong.
The moment I saw the article in The New York Times, I knew something was off. As a mother, I could sense danger,” she said, recalling her intuition after seeing reports surrounding her son. “But whenever I talked to him, he’d reassure me, ‘Don’t worry, Mom. Everything’s fine,” said Rao.
Initially, San Francisco police have claimed in their investigation that the victim had allegedly died due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound made from a firearm registered under Balaji’s name. However, his parents have hinted towards a “professional hitjob” stating that Suchir had bought the gun to protect himself but incidentally, it was used against him.
“ He bought a gun one year before,that shows that there’s some threat that he’s perceiving that he wants to protect himself. “said Balaji’s father Ramamurthy.
Suchir’s warnings shows us a glimpse of future dominated by AI
In another interview, Suchir’s parents revealed about a journal he had maintained during his stint with the OpenAI. According to the family, in his journal, Suchir was unflinchingly candid about his fears. He wrote about the risks of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Superintelligence (ASI), even pondering the bleak future where humans might lose their jobs to machines. He warned that if AI surpassed human intelligence, it could eventually be treated as a god-like entity, taking control of industries and lives. “What will we do if all our jobs are taken?” he had written. “If AI becomes more intelligent than us, what happens to us?”
Poornima was unaware of the depth of her son’s concerns until after his death. “He kept it all to himself. He was always secretive, from the very beginning,” she said. “I didn’t know how serious it was, but now I understand just how much he was thinking about it.”
As the family struggles to understand the circumstances of Suchir’s death, Poornima voiced a powerful call for action. She expressed her hope that the FBI would investigate the situation further, especially in light of the potential connection to the burgeoning AI industry.
If we could speak to the new FBI Director or the Attorney General, we would tell them that there’s a conspiracy behind my son’s death,” Poornima said. “His death is tied to the future of the AI industry, which is worth billions of dollars. My son was trying to expose something about AI safety, something illegal that was happening, and that’s why he was silenced.”