 "Suchir Balaji was an Indian-origin AI researcher who had worked at OpenAI for four years. AP/File Photo")
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly spoken for the first time about the death of whistleblower Suchir Balaji during an interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson.
During the tense conversation, Carlson claimed that Balaji’s death was ‘definitely murder’, while Altman called it a suicide.
Soon after the interview, Tesla boss Elon Musk escalated his attacks on Altman, openly saying that the researcher had been ‘murdered’.
Notably, Suchir Balaji was an Indian-origin AI researcher who had worked at OpenAI for four years. He was found dead in his apartment in November 2024, just weeks after accusing the company of copyright violations.
So, what exactly happened during the interview? What did Elon Musk say? Who was Suchir Balaji, and what do we know about his death?
Here’s a look at all the information:
What did Sam Altman say during the interview?
Altman spoke about Balaji’s death during an interview with Tucker Carlson, where the controversial host spoke about Balaji’s earlier complaints against OpenAI.
At the start, Carlson said, “You had complaints from one programmer who said you guys were basically stealing people’s stuff and not paying them, and then he wound up murdered. What was that?”
Altman replied, “Also a great tragedy. He committed suicide.” Carlson asked him, “Do you think he committed suicide?”
“I really do,” the OpenAI boss said. “He was like a friend of mine. I spent a lot of time trying to, you know, read everything I could, as I’m sure you and others did too, about what happened. It looks like a suicide to me.”
Carlson then questioned the circumstances, suggesting they could indicate murder. He asked, “Why does it look like a suicide?”
Altman answered, “It was a gun he had purchased.”
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More ShortsCarlson disagreed, saying, “He was definitely murdered, I think.”
He added, “There were signs of a struggle, of course. The surveillance camera, the wires had been cut. He had just ordered takeout food, come back from a vacation with his friends on Catalina Island. No indication at all that he was suicidal.”
As the discussion went on, Altman said, “I haven’t done too many interviews where I’ve been accused of murder.”
Carlson kept asking how a suicide could involve “signs of a struggle and blood in two rooms.” He said, “I don’t understand how the authorities could just kind of dismiss that as a suicide. I think it’s weird.”
Altman then responded, “You understand how this sounds like an accusation?”
What did Elon Musk say?
Elon Musk, who once co-founded OpenAI but later became a critic and legal opponent of the company, commented after the interview clip with Tucker Carlson was shared.
On X, Musk posted, “He was murdered.”
Musk’s relationship with Altman and OpenAI has grown increasingly hostile in recent years, as he has criticised what he sees as weak ethical standards and a lack of transparency at the AI lab.
Who was Suchir Balaji?
He was a 26-year-old Indian-origin researcher and former OpenAI employee, found dead in his San Francisco apartment in November last year.
A talented computer scientist, Balaji studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and interned with OpenAI and Scale AI. After graduating, he joined OpenAI as a full-time employee.
At OpenAI, he worked on key projects including WebGPT and GPT-4’s pretraining. His role later expanded to the reasoning team and post-training for ChatGPT, according to his LinkedIn profile.
After more than four years at OpenAI, where he became an important member of the development team, he left the organisation, citing ethical concerns about the societal impact of the technology.
In October 2024, Balaji spoke to The New York Times about his concerns regarding OpenAI’s handling of copyright issues.
Earlier, in a blog post, he had raised concerns about the societal impact of AI, questioning whether using copyrighted data to train models was ethical or legal.
Reports also suggest that Balaji was named in a court filing related to a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI. To address the case, the company agreed to review files connected to his concerns about data usage.
How did Suchir Balaji die?
Authorities have stated that Balaji died from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The San Francisco Police Department and the city’s medical examiner reported that his apartment was locked from the inside with no signs of forced entry. Toxicology tests found alcohol and amphetamines in his system at the time.
However, Balaji’s parents have rejected the official finding, calling it a “cold-blooded murder.” They cited an independent autopsy, which they said showed evidence of a second gunshot wound and signs of a struggle.
They have denied claims that Balaji was depressed and shared CCTV footage showing him acting “normal” and picking up dinner on the day of his death.