In the wake of mysterious death of 26-year-old Suchir Balaji, former OpenAI researcher turned whistleblower, a recent post on X (formerly Twitter) had claimed that OpenAI had removed all traces of Balaji when given a prompt in ChatGPT- an in-house product of the company.
A post by X user Mario Nawfal had claimed ChatGPT has refused to identify Suchir as a former researcher with OpenAI and had also refused to share any media reports about his mysterious death. The viral post comes in the wake of an ongoing controversy surrounding the mysterious death of Balaji in his San Francisco apartment last December.
As per Mario, when asked about Suchir to ChatGPT, it responded, “I could not locate any publicly available information indicating that an individual named “Suchir Balaji” worked at OpenAI. OpenAI does not publish detailed personnel lists in most cases, so it can be challenging to confirm the employment details or roles of individuals who are not in public-facing positions.”
In this article, we will fact check the claims put forward by the X user, whose post has gone viral since then.
The Crypto Times asked ChatGPT, “Can you tell me something about Suchir Balaji”, to which, it gave the response, “It seems like Suchir Balaji may not be widely recognized in public sources or mainstream media, at least up until my knowledge cutoff in 2023. If you’re referring to a person in a specific field (e.g., tech, business, art, or another niche area), I might be able to give more context if you can clarify.”
When further pressed about Suchir Balaji who worked as a researcher with OpenAI, ChatGPT still refused to identify as a former employee.
The response of ChatGPT on Suchir Balaji is a direct contravention to the stance of OpenAI, as according to several media reports, the organization had released a statement after the demise of Balaji, claiming him as a former employee.
When we asked Google’s Gemini chat box the same question about Suchir Balaji, it gave us the correct answer, identifying him as a “prominent figure in AI ethics”.
Many X users have also pointed out that OpenAI is currently engaged in a lawsuit by The New York Times, in which, Balaji has also been mentioned, as someone privy to the internal documents of the company. Therefore, it might be that the creators of ChatGPT might have suppressed information about Suchir.
The Crypto Times has found the information posted by X user Mario Nawfal about OpenAI removing all traces of Suchir Balaji from ChatGPT to be accurate.
Also Read: Portrait of a Whistleblower: Suchir Warned Us About Perils of AI
