New Delhi: The mother of Suchir Balaji, the 26-year-old OpenAI whistleblower, has sought help from Elon Musk following her son’s death. Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment earlier this month. In a social media post, his mother tagged Musk and requested an FBI investigation.
While police reported that no evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation, the San Francisco Chief Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Balaji’s death as a suicide. Balaji was a researcher at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
In her post, Poornima Rao, the mother of Suchir Balaji, expressed concern, stating that a private autopsy did not confirm the cause of death reported by police. She urged US authorities to intervene, calling for an FBI investigation into the matter. Along with Elon Musk, she also tagged American biotech entrepreneur and politician Vivek Ramaswamy, as well as California Governor Gavin Newsom.
“We hired a private investigator and conducted a second autopsy to shed light on the cause of death. The private autopsy does not confirm the cause stated by police,” Rao wrote. She added that Suchir’s apartment had been ransacked, there were signs of a struggle in the bathroom, and blood spots indicated that someone may have hit him there.
It’s a cold-blooded murder declared by authorities as suicide. Lobbying in SF city doesn’t stop us from getting justices. We demand FBI investigation, she said in her post.
Update on @suchirbalaji
We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death. Private autopsy doesn’t confirm cause of death stated by police.
Suchir’s apartment was ransacked , sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like some one hit him…
— Poornima Rao (@RaoPoornima) December 29, 2024
She concluded the post by tagging Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, California governor and India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)
The post went viral after Musk joined in, replying “This doesn’t seem like a suicide”. Poornima then replied to the SpaceX CEO, saying “please support us”.
In an interview with Business Insider last week, Poornima Rao shared that Suchir Balaji had become increasingly disillusioned with artificial intelligence (AI), especially OpenAI’s move toward commercializing ChatGPT.
“He felt AI is a harm to humanity,” Rao said, describing how her son’s initial optimism about AI’s potential shifted to deep scepticism. Reflecting on his tragic death, she added, “It doesn’t look like a normal situation.”
