OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

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But don't expect this potential fodder for conspiracists to be remotely as bountiful as the "Epstein didn't kill himself" kind. AFAIK, there's no appreciable Terminator/Skynet cabal theory to incorporate it into. Oops, my bad. A search engine's AI assistant itself just presented one with extensive key points. ;)
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OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/12/13/openai-whistleblower-found-dead-in-san-francisco-apartment/

EXCERPTS: A former OpenAI researcher known for whistleblowing the blockbuster artificial intelligence company facing a swell of lawsuits over its business model has died, authorities confirmed this week.

[...] Police had been called to the Lower Haight residence [of Suchir Balaji] at about 1 p.m. that day, after receiving a call asking officers to check on his well-being...

[...] The medical examiner’s office determined the manner of death to be suicide and police officials this week said there is “currently, no evidence of foul play.”

Information he held was expected to play a key part in lawsuits against the San Francisco-based company. Balaji’s death comes three months after he publicly accused OpenAI of violating U.S. copyright law while developing ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence program that has become a moneymaking sensation used by hundreds of millions of people across the world.... (MORE - details)
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Yeah, a young man so engaged with life, holding interesting information, and taking on a corporate tiger is not who we expect to be inclined to suicidal depression. Absent some traumatic event or a story of a romantic rejection emerging, one does have to wonder. OTOH, I am noticing an epidemic of loneliness in that age group lately and suicide rates in that cohort are surging. It is always a little baffling to those who don't struggle with depression to see a picture of someone young, fit, and handsome, and learn they killed themself. You just don't know what may be crumbling inside.

(and still wondering what that disappearing young woman, Ms Kobayashi IIRC, was all about - I guess they found her in Mexico, on some sort of unplugged walkabout...another story that makes you wonder what's going on with Gen Z)
 
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C C said:
[...] The medical examiner’s office determined the manner of death to be suicide and police officials this week said there is “currently, no evidence of foul play.”
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He the same guy that did the autopsy on Epstein? :p
 
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TheVat said:
Yeah, a young man so engaged with life, holding interesting information, and taking on a corporate tiger is not who we expect to be inclined to suicidal depression. Absent some traumatic event or a story of a romantic rejection emerging, one does have to wonder. OTOH, I am noticing an epidemic of loneliness in that age group lately and suicide rates in that cohort are surging. It is always a little baffling to those who don't struggle with depression to see a picture of someone young, fit, and handsome, and learn they killed themself. You just don't know what may be crumbling inside.

(and still wondering what that disappearing young woman, Ms Kobayashi IIRC, was all about - I guess they found her in Mexico, on some sort of unplugged walkabout...another story that makes you wonder what's going on with Gen Z)
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Whistleblowing on a high profile enterprise like Open AI is bound to cause huge personal stress, not helped by and adversarial communications from corporate lawyers and so forth that he may have possibly received. He may also have felt he sold his own soul in some way during his time working on it. Who knows? So it seems to me there are plenty of possible reasons for depression and no need to jump to conspriatirial conclusions.

(In fact, I simply do not believe that serious corporations mount hit jobs on people. The blowback if discovered would destroy them, and I just don't think the people working in them are that morally bankrupt, as a rule.)

So, yeah, I expect it was a tragic suicide. What a waste.
 
TheVat said:
Yeah, a young man so engaged with life, holding interesting information, and taking on a corporate tiger is not who we expect to be inclined to suicidal depression. Absent some traumatic event or a story of a romantic rejection emerging, one does have to wonder. OTOH, I am noticing an epidemic of loneliness in that age group lately and suicide rates in that cohort are surging. It is always a little baffling to those who don't struggle with depression to see a picture of someone young, fit, and handsome, and learn they killed themself. You just don't know what may be crumbling inside.

(and still wondering what that disappearing young woman, Ms Kobayashi IIRC, was all about - I guess they found her in Mexico, on some sort of unplugged walkabout...another story that makes you wonder what's going on with Gen Z)
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The fragility of Gen-Z definitely something to take into account when chalking up to coincidence any "suspicious ambience" the incident might arouse.
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exchemist said:
The blowback if discovered would destroy them, and I just don't think the people working in them are that morally bankrupt, as a rule.)
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The last decade of American politics has erased any doubt I had about how rampant moral bankruptcy is, and how people just no longer care about reputations or actions of mega-organizations (corporate or political).

The organizations - and apparently the people within them - are - by my antiquated standards - monsters. I'm not being facetious or overly-cynical; it's just a new world out there.
 
DaveC426913 said:
I, for one, am not.
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And yet here you are posting using a computer you bought from one of these organizations.

You see this is what always cracks me up about people complaining about institutions they themselves contributed to creating and continue to support.
 
Zero Point Native said:
And yet here you are posting using a computer you bought from one of these organizations.
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That's an absurdly trollish argument.

1. It's analagous to asserting that watering my crops makes me culpable for climate change. Follow that line of argument to its illogical conclusion, and the only sinless man is the one who commits suicide the moment he is old enough to do so, so as not to further adulerate the world.

2. How do you know where I got my computer? Is every corporation monstrous? That's unrealistic. Obviously, it's a matter of degree from conscientious to pathological.
 
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DaveC426913 said:
That's an absurdly trollish argument.

1. It's analagous to asserting that watering my crops makes me culpable for climate change. Follow that line of argument to its illogical conclusion, and the only sinless man is the one who commits suicide the moment he is old enough to do so, so as not to further adulerate the world.

2. How do you know where I got my computer? Is every corporation monstrous? That's unrealistic. Obviously, it's a matter of degree from conscientious to pathological.
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Shhh. It’s ok. I don’t expect you to understand. There’s no need to worry. I just find it funny how people integrated into mainstream society somehow feel they are excluded from being responsible for all the abhorrent behavior we see displayed by our institutions when they are nothing more than a reflection of society itself. It’s always hilarious watching protestors marching in the streets shaking their fists at the organizations they help to create and erroneously believing they’re making a difference.
 
Zero Point Native said:
[...] You see this is what always cracks me up about people complaining about institutions they themselves contributed to creating and continue to support.
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Hmm... Sounds suspiciously (and this is the conspiracy subforum, after all ;)) like Season 3 of "The Good Place". Where they discovered that no one had been admitted to TGP for 521 years. Due to the whole planet becoming so socioeconomically interconnected.

People everywhere for centuries had been buying the unethically made products of capitalism, and consequently accumulating negative points with respect to the afterlife. A trend of immorality dating all the back to the earliest days of colonialism, slavery, and resource ravaging... To the exploitation of underpaid workers in poor countries for outputting manufactured goods.

To wit, a question every proper left-wing crusader should feel an obligation to ritually ponder at night (as a substitute for counting sheep): "Is There Such A Thing As Ethical Consumerism Under Capitalism?"
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  1. A change of mindset in a large proportion of humanity (including some corporate and political leaders).
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Quote from: Is There Such A Thing As Ethical Consumerism Under Capitalism?

This mindset change in the global community has been gradually happening for quite some time now, and I feel confident that this shift will reach a pinnacle within the next five years. AI will be one of the major catalysts that will speed up this shift. The American dollar probably won't even exist by then. I'm betting that in under 20 years, you won't even see human workers at any fast-food restaurant as well as many other establishments. Hell, probably in under 10 at the rate AI is increasing. The entire entertainment industry will be unrecognizable from today. Hollywood will be a thing of the past thankfully as they will no longer be needed.

So yeah, very exciting times in the very near future.
 
Zero Point Native said:
Shhh. It’s ok. I don’t expect you to understand.
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What's to understand, your claims are insanely ignorant and stupid. You've already admitted you don't watch any news so it's clear your entire diatribe is just verbal diarrhea conjured from your vivid imagination. Being arrogant and condescending about it only serves to demonstrate the Dunning Kruger phenomenon.
 
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