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OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

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Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#101

Post by bsenftner »

minimaxir wrote: post #29
sharkjacobs wrote: post #13

http://suchir.net/fair_use.html When does generative AI qualify for fair use? by Suchir Balaji

It's also worth reading his initial tweet: https://x.com/suchirbalaji/status/1849192575758139733 > 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://suchir.net/fair_use.html ) about the nitty-gritty details of fair use and why I believe this. > To give some conte…

I'm an applied AI developer and CTO at a law firm, and we discuss the fair use argument quite a bit. It grey enough that whom ever has more financial revenues to continue their case will win. Such is the law and legal industry in the USA.

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#102

Post by smt88 »

lolinder wrote: post #62
ninetyninenine wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Anytime someone potentially possesses information that is damning to a company and that person is killed… the low probability of such an even being a random coincidence is quite low. It is so low such that it is extremely reasonable to consider the potential for an actual assassination while not precluding that a coincidence is a possibility.

> Anytime someone potentially possesses information that is damning to a company and that person is killed… the low probability of such an even being a random coincidence is quite low. You're running into the birthday paradox here. The probability of a specific witness dying before they can testify in a lawsuit is low. The probability of any one of dozens of people involved in a lawsuit dying before it's resolved is…

A 26yo dying is not "one of dozens," it's ~1/10,000 in the US (and likely much lower if we consider this guy's background and socioeconomic status).

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#103

Post by zusammen »

pkkkzip wrote: post #37
dgfitz wrote: post #22

I wonder who called to ask about his well-being. The Boeing guy killed himself, this guy apparently killed himself. The pattern of David vs Goliath, where David kills himself, is almost becoming a pattern.

Boeing guy and OpenAI whistleblower were both seen as "not depressed" and have even gone far as to say that if anything happened to him that it wouldn't have been an accident. I'm not sure why there are so many comments trying to downplay and argue around whether OpenAI was a whistleblower or not he fits pretty much all the definition. OpenAI was suspected of using copyright data but that wasn't the only thing OpenAI…

[dead]

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#104

Post by typeofhuman »

DevX101 wrote: post #68
BillFranklin wrote: post #60

There are some pretty callous comments on this thread. This is really sad. Suchir was just 26, and graduated from Berkeley 3 years ago. Here’s his personal site: https://suchir.net/ . I think he was pretty brave for standing up against what is generally perceived as an injustice being done by one of the biggest companies in the world, just a few years out of college. I’m not sure how many people in his position would…

If I'm a whistleblower in an active case and I end up dead before testifying, I absolutely DO want the general public to speculate about my cause of death.

I would also most certainly have a dead man's switch releasing everything I know. I would have given it to an attorney along with a sworn deposition.

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#106

Post by Terr_ »

anon373839 wrote: post #42
lolinder wrote: post #18

Normally the word "whistleblower" means someone who revealed previously-unknown facts about an organization. In this case he's a former employee who had an interview where he criticized OpenAI, but the facts that he was in possession of were not only widely known at the time but were the subject of an ongoing lawsuit that had launched months prior. As much as I want to give this a charitable reading, the only explana…

> Normally the word "whistleblower" means someone who revealed previously-unknown facts Not to be pedantic, but this is actually incorrect, both under federal and California law. Case law is actually very explicit on the point that the information does NOT need to be previously unknown to qualify for whistleblower protection. However, disclosing information to the media is not typically protected.

I think their post boils down to: "This title implies someone would have a strong reason to murder them, but that isn't true."

We can evaluate that argument without caring too much about whether the writer intended it, or whether some other circumstances might have forced their word-choice.

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#107

Post by bbqfog »

zusammen wrote: post #99
dgfitz wrote: post #22

I wonder who called to ask about his well-being. The Boeing guy killed himself, this guy apparently killed himself. The pattern of David vs Goliath, where David kills himself, is almost becoming a pattern.

[flagged]

That's really interesting. Do you have any books or information about Michael O. Church for further reading? Wasn't he a HN user?

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#108

Post by getpost »

DevX101 wrote: post #20

Anyone who's a whistleblower should compile key docs and put it in a "dead man's switch" service that releases your testimony/docs to multiple news agencies in the event of your untimely demise. The company you're whistle blowing against and their major shareholders should know this exists. Also, regularly post public video attesting to you current mental state.

> regularly post public video attesting to you current mental state

Yes, indeed, that would attest to your mental state!

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#109

Post by smt88 »

ipython wrote: post #58
pkkkzip wrote: post #28

[flagged]

Murdering a us citizen on us soil is not something any enlisted or officer would do.

They've done it before at the request of a corporation. What has changed that they wouldn't do it now?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#110

Post by jkeat »

DevX101 wrote: post #68
BillFranklin wrote: post #60

There are some pretty callous comments on this thread. This is really sad. Suchir was just 26, and graduated from Berkeley 3 years ago. Here’s his personal site: https://suchir.net/ . I think he was pretty brave for standing up against what is generally perceived as an injustice being done by one of the biggest companies in the world, just a few years out of college. I’m not sure how many people in his position would…

If I'm a whistleblower in an active case and I end up dead before testifying, I absolutely DO want the general public to speculate about my cause of death.

Agreed. This is a good time to revisit an Intercept investigation from last year that explored another suspicious suicide by a tech titan whistleblower:

https://theintercept.com/2023/03/23/peter-thiel-jeff-thomas/

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