Parliament Winter Session: The government aims to conduct the Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections simultaneously, for which the Centre will introduce the ONOP Bill in Lok Sabha on Monday.

Suchir Balaji, a former Artificial Intelligence (AI) researcher at OpenAI, has been found dead in his San Francisco apartment. The 26-year-old reportedly died by suicide.

“No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation,” Officer Robert Rueca, a spokesperson with the San Francisco Police Department, told Forbes.

According to The Mercury News, Balaji was found dead inside his Buchanan Street apartment on November 26.

He worked for OpenAI from November 2020 to August 2024, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Billionaire Elon Musk, who has a long-standing feud with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, reacted to the news with a cryptic “hmm” post on X (formerly Twitter).

Hmm https://t.co/HsElym3uLV

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2024

OpenAI was co-founded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman in 2015. Three years later, Musk left OpenAI and founded another rival start-up, xAI.

Last month, Musk alleged that OpenAI is a monopolist.

Suchir Balaji Said OpenAI Broke Copyright Law

In October, Suchir Balaji had alleged that OpenAI was violating copyright law.

“If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” he said in an interview with The New York Times.

He also said that technologies like ChatGPT were damaging the internet.

In a social media post on X in October, Balaji had also written about fair use and generative AI.

Talking about his experience of working at OpenAI for four years, including his work on ChatGPT for a year and a half, Balaji concluded that “fair use seems like a pretty implausible defense for a lot of generative AI products.”

“I initially didn’t know much about copyright, fair use, etc. but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits filed against GenAI companies. When I tried to understand the issue better, I eventually came to the conclusion that fair use seems like a pretty implausible defense for a lot of generative AI products, for the basic reason that they can create substitutes that compete with the data they’re trained on (sic),” he wrote.

I recently participated in a NYT story about fair use and generative AI, and why I’m skeptical “fair use” would be a plausible defense for a lot of generative AI products. I also wrote a blog post (https://t.co/xhiVyCk2Vk) about the nitty-gritty details of fair use and why I…

— Suchir Balaji (@suchirbalaji) October 23, 2024

In a blog post, Balaji explained the four factors that determine whether generative AI qualifies for fair use or not. Among the four factors is the “effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work”.

The fair use test also looks at the purpose and character of the use and nature of the copyrighted work – whether it is creative work that is highly protected by copyright or factual work.

Balaji concluded, “None of the four factors seem to weigh in favor of ChatGPT being a fair use of its training data. That being said, none of the arguments here are fundamentally specific to ChatGPT either, and similar arguments could be made for many generative AI products in a wide variety of domains.”

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to reply on the ongoing Constitution debate in the Lok Sabha, a day after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh initiated it.
• Mr Singh, hitting out at the Opposition, said that some people were taught to carry the Constitution in their pockets while the BJP bows to it. He hit out at the Congress’ attempts to overlook the collective contributions of many individuals and the Constitution’s deep roots in India’s cultural and civilizational values.
• The debate on Friday saw Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who delivered her maiden speech in the House, hitting out at the BJP for making the Constitution a “Sanghvidhaan” or Sangh’s rule book. Mentioning the Sambhal violence and Unnao rape case, she also accused the ruling government of spreading “fear”, and said the Constitution gave people courage to face the oppression and put up a fight.
• Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav voiced a renewed push for conducting the caste census. In reference to the Sambhal violence and other surveys of places of worship, he said those looking for temples under mosques don’t want peace.
• Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra’s reference to the death of a judicial officer triggered an uproar with Union minister Kiren Rijiju warning her of “appropriate parliamentary action”. She accused the BJP-led Centre of “bleeding the Constitution from a thousand cuts” and said it is crystal clear that the political executive has “systematically eroded democracy” over the last 10 years.
• External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, speaking during the Question Hour, said it is in Bangladesh’s own interest to ensure the safety of minorities, amid reports of attacks on Hindus. He also said that for India to have good relations with Pakistan, the latter needs to be free of terrorists.
• The Rajya Sabha was adjourned on Friday without transacting much business as the stand-off between Vide President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Leader Of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge continue over the no-confidence motion against the former. The House will reconvene on Monday.