The household of Suchir Balaji state he was killed and didn't kill himself. Now they've taken legal action against San Francisco and its police department.

Decrypt's Art, Fashion, and Entertainment Hub.

The parents of deceased OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji have taken legal action against the city of San Francisco and the San Francisco Police Department, alleging that the real cause of his death was not suicide, however murder.

The claim, submitted in January, declares that the SFPD concealed the criminal offense, ruling it a suicide without performing a comprehensive investigation.

Balaji, who had worked as a researcher at OpenAI, was discovered dead in his San Francisco house last November. Attorneys state Balaji's moms and dads, Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy, asked for further investigation into his death however were informed the case was already closed.

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

The claim claims that SFPD broke the California Public Records Act by unlawfully keeping public records of the case. Attorneys for Ramarao and Ramamurthy also argued that the investigation into their kid's death was hurried and inadequate, with authorities ignoring key forensic findings and failing to resolve their ask for .

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

Said Geothals: "If the San Francisco Superior Court does not translate and impose 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 Times in October, he said that before the general public launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, he had assisted OpenAI gather and use "massive quantities" of data drawn from the web without permission.

According to the claim, in December, Balaji's household worked with forensic pathologist Dr. Joseph Cohen to carry out a private autopsy. In his report, Dr. Cohen figured out that there was a single gunshot wound in the mid-forehead, somewhat 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, entirely missing out on the brain before lodging in the brainstem, pipewiki.org according to the match. Dr. Cohen determined a contusion on the back of Balaji's head, which he said raised further questions about the circumstances of his death.

The San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to an ask for remark by Decrypt.

The claim called out the scenarios of Bilaji's death. His body was discovered a week after The New York Times discussed 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 yearly DealBook Summit, Altman dismissed the claims.