- Suchir Balaji, an ex-OpenAI researcher who raised concerns about his employer, died in November.
- His parents have demanded a thorough investigation into his death.
- An autopsy report said authorities found a gun registered in Balaji’s name.
San Francisco authorities said a case involving the death of a former OpenAI researcher in November is “closed,” citing, among other evidence, a self-inflicted gunshot wound from a pistol registered to the victim, documents shared with Business Insider show.
Suchir Balaji, an ex-OpenAI employee who last year raised concerns about copyright issues regarding his former employer, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on November 26. He was 26 years old.
Local authorities at the time ruled Balaji’s cause of death as an apparent suicide with no evidence of foul play.
Balaji’s mother, Poornima Ramarao, previously told BI that the family would seek a private autopsy. Attorneys representing Balaji’s parents also filed a petition against the city and county of San Francisco in January, demanding the immediate release of public records related to their son’s case.
In a joint letter to the family attorneys dated February 14 from the San Francisco Police Department and the medical examiner’s office, authorities wrote that Balaji was found lying alone in his bathroom with no signs of a “forced entry to the single door leading into the residence.”
In the police’s investigative findings, the letter said, a firearm was found underneath Balaji’s leg.
“The pistol found at the scene was purchased and registered to Mr. Balaji in January 2024,” the letter said.
Gun residue particles were found on Balaji’s right and left hand, the autopsy report reads. The report said Balaji sustained “a severe firearm injury.”
“There were no signs of unrelated injuries or bruising to Mr. Balaji,” authorities wrote.
Authorities said in the letter to the Balaji family’s attorneys that they had seen the preliminary report from the independent autopsy the family sought and that the findings were “consistent” with the medical examiner’s office’s findings, including the entrance and trajectory of the bullet.
“The SFPD found no evidence or information to establish that Mr. Balaji died of means other than a suicide by self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” the letter from SFPD and medical examiner’s office said. “If you learn of any new information or evidence, please provide it to SFPD. SFPD considers this case closed and will only reopen the criminal investigation if there is a basis for a chargeable offense and the statute of limitations has not expired.”
Kevin Rooney, an attorney representing Balaji’s parents, told BI the family had received the letter and the autopsy report. He did not have further comment.
Balaji was an OpenAI researcher for four years, helping the AI startup gather data for its GPT-4 model. A former colleague told BI in an interview that Balaji was instrumental in developing ChatGPT’s early predecessor.
“He was one of the true geniuses at OpenAI,” Tarun Gogineni, a research scientist at OpenAI, said.
In October, just a few months after Balaji left the company, The New York Times published an interview in which Balaji accused his former employer of violating copyright law.
OpenAI is involved in several other legal battles concerning copyright violations. On November 18, Balaji was named in the Times’ lawsuit as a custodian who could provide supporting legal documents for the case.
An OpenAI spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Balaji’s mother, Ramarao, previously told BI she wasn’t satisfied with the police investigation. To raise awareness about her son’s case, she organized public vigils and made multiple media appearances.
Ramarao wrote in a post on X on Friday afternoon that she wanted a “transparent investigation.”
A spokesperson for the medical examiner’s office did not address Ramarao’s social media post when responding to BI’s request for comment. An SFPD spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
