The household of Suchir Balaji say he was killed and didn't kill himself. Now they have actually taken legal action against San Francisco and its cops department.

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

The claim, filed in January, declares that the SFPD covered up the criminal offense, ruling it a suicide without conducting a comprehensive investigation.

Balaji, who had worked as a researcher at OpenAI, was discovered dead in his San Francisco house last November. Attorneys say Balaji's moms and photorum.eclat-mauve.fr dads, Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy, asked for even more investigation into his death however were told the case was currently closed.

"The claim demands that the city, authorities department, and medical inspector release public documents kept under the Public Records Act," Joseph Goethals, lawyer for the petitioners, told Decrypt. He said that if the documents weren't supplied within 10 days, and "no legitimate exceptions use, a claim can compel their release. We will look for a court order to obtain them."

The claim claims that SFPD violated the California Public Records Act by unlawfully withholding public records of the case. Attorneys for Ramarao and Ramamurthy also argued that the investigation into their son's death was rushed and inadequate, with officials disregarding crucial forensic findings and failing to address their ask for further questions.

The claim demands the immediate disclosure of all reports, pictures, and videos, together with coverage of legal expenses.

Said Geothals: "If the San Francisco Superior Court does not analyze and impose the law correctly, we will seek recourse with the Court of Appeal. We hope it does not pertain to that."

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

According to the claim, in December, Balaji's household employed forensic pathologist Dr. Joseph Cohen to perform a personal autopsy. In his report, Dr. Cohen identified 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 traveled downward at a small left-to-right angle, entirely missing the brain before lodging in the brainstem, according to the suit. Dr. Cohen identified a contusion on the back of Balaji's head, which he said raised even more questions about the scenarios of his death.

The San Francisco Police Department did not right away react to an ask for remark by Decrypt.

The claim called out the situations of Bilaji's death. His body was found a week after The New york city Times mentioned the whistleblower in a court filing associated to its claim against OpenAI.

Despite Balaji's revelations, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pressed back on the New York Times' claims. Speaking at the paper's annual DealBook Summit, Altman dismissed the claims.