The household of Suchir Balaji state he was murdered and didn’t eliminate himself. Now they have actually taken legal action against San Francisco and its police department.

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The moms and dads of deceased OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji have actually taken legal action against the city of San Francisco and the San Francisco Police Department, declaring that the real cause of his death was not suicide, but murder.

The claim, submitted in January, declares that the SFPD covered up the criminal activity, ruling it a suicide without carrying out a thorough examination.

Balaji, who had actually worked as a scientist at OpenAI, was discovered dead in his San Francisco apartment or asteroidsathome.net condo last November. Attorneys state Balaji’s moms and dads, Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy, requested even more investigation into his death however were informed the case was currently closed.

«The claim demands that the city, cops department, and medical inspector release public documents kept under the Public Records Act,» Joseph Goethals, lawyer for the petitioners, informed Decrypt. He said that if the files weren’t provided within 10 days, and «no valid exceptions apply, a claim can force their release. We will look for a court order to obtain them.»

The claim claims that SFPD breached the California Public Records Act by unlawfully keeping public records of the case. Attorneys for Ramarao and Ramamurthy likewise argued that the investigation into their boy’s death was hurried and inadequate, with officials overlooking key forensic findings and failing to resolve their ask for more query.

The claim requires the immediate disclosure of all reports, pictures, and videos, in addition to coverage of legal expenses.

Said Geothals: «If the San Francisco Superior Court does not interpret and enforce the law correctly, we will seek option with the Court of Appeal. We hope it doesn’t pertain to that.»

Balaji worked for OpenAI from November 2020 to August 2024. In an interview with The New york city Times in October, he said that before the public launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, he had helped OpenAI collect and utilize «enormous quantities» of data drawn from the internet without authorization.

According to the claim, in December, Balaji’s family worked with forensic pathologist Dr. Joseph Cohen to perform a private autopsy. In his report, Dr. Cohen determined that there was a single gunshot wound in the mid-forehead, slightly to the right of the bridge of his nose.

Dr. Cohen said that the bullet trajectory was unusual for a suicide, as it took a trip downward at a slight left-to-right angle, totally missing the brain before lodging in the brainstem, according to the match. Dr. Cohen recognized a contusion on the back of head, which he said raised even more questions about the circumstances of his death.

The San Francisco Police Department did not right away react to a demand for comment by Decrypt.

The claim called out the scenarios of Bilaji’s death. His body was discovered a week after The New York Times pointed out the whistleblower in a court filing associated to its claim against OpenAI.

Despite Balaji’s discoveries, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pushed back on the New york city Times’ claims. Speaking at the newspaper’s annual DealBook Summit, Altman dismissed the claims.