Former OpenAI researcher and whistleblower Suchir Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in late November, shortly after he disclosed sensitive information about the AI giant.
Although authorities have classified the death as a suicide, his mother, Poornima Rao, claims that her son was in fact murdered – and that OpenAI and its CEO are responsible for the killing.
In an interview with US commentator Tucker Carlson, Mr. Balaji’s mother makes sensational accusations against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. She claims the company silenced her son to hide sensitive information.
– My son had documents against OpenAI. They attacked him and killed him, she says.
My son had documents against OpenAI. They attacked him and killed him.
一 Mother of Suchir Balaji, OpenAI Whistleblower in an interview with Tucker Carlson pic.twitter.com/rcThmV3vwB
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) January 15, 2025
She also claims that important items were missing from her son’s apartment when she went through it after his death.
– Everybody is suppressed, nobody is ready to come up and tell the truth. Even the attorneys have been made to tell that it is a suicide, she continues.
Wants the FBI to take over the case
The San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Balaji’s death a suicide, but his family has questioned the investigation and is now demanding that the FBI take over the case.
Balaji’s mother says the police investigation was flawed and remarkably fast. She says she was also not properly informed of the death, but realized what had happened when she saw a white hearse outside her son’s home.
– It took them 14 minutes to determine the cause of death and tell me that it was a suicide. In the evening, they returned the keys to me and told me that I could pick up the body tomorrow.
Rao also accuses the police of withholding information and says they have not been transparent in their handling of the case.
“Cold-blooded murder”
Earlier, Balaji’s mother wrote on social media that her son’s apartment had been ransacked and that there were clear signs of a struggle in the bathroom.
“Someone hit him in the bathroom. There were blood spots”, she claimed, calling the death “a cold-blooded murder declared by authorities as suicide”.
The mother also refutes the claim that her son was suicidal, pointing out that he celebrated his birthday the day before he died.
– My son celebrated his birthday a day before he died. What more do we need to give on account that he was in a happy mood? she asks herself.
Suchir Balaji worked for OpenAI for almost four years before he resigned in August 2023, having expressed dissatisfaction with the company’s change from a non-profit organization to a for-profit company.
This change, according to his mother, was a decisive factor in his decision to leave and later act as a whistleblower, trying to raise the alarm that the tech company’s activities were detrimental to the internet as we know it and also in violation of US copyright law.