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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

#311
This is extremely sad and I'm sorry for Suchir's family and friends.

As someone who has struggled with suicidal ideation while working in the tech industry for over a decade, I do wonder if the insane culture of Bay Area tech has a part to play.

Besides the extreme hustle culture mindset, there's also a kind of naive techno-optimism that can make you feel insane. You're surrounded by people who think breaking the law is OK and that they're changing the world by selling smart kitchen appliances, even while they're exploiting workers in developing countries for cheap tech support and stepping over OD victims outside their condo.

This mindset is so pervasive you really start to wonder if you're crazy for having empathy or any sense of justice.

I have no special insight except to guess that going from being an obviously brilliant student at Berkeley to a cut-throat startup like OpenAI would be a jarring experience. You've achieved everything you worked your whole life for, and you find you're doing work that is completely out of whack with your morals and values.

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#312
post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what was done with WikiLeaks - a few major European journals worked on the information together

Depending on which release, Wikileaks normally chose an international group of media partners, including US, British, European, and Russian ones.

Yes, I know that in France Le Monde did that, and they were in close cooperation with I think The Guardian and El Mundo

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#314

"No evidence of foul play." What about the evidence that he's only 26 and has a successful career in the booming Ai industry? He doesn't seem a likely candidate for suicide. Fair use hasn't been tested in court. He has documents that show OpenAI's intention and communications about the legal framework for it. He was directly involved in web scraping and openly discussing the legal perspectives with his superiors. Tha…

people dont kill themselves because they dont have a good job. thats a weird and naive belief that upper class people have. people kill themselves because they are mentally unwell, fundamentally. except situations like terminal illness.

people dont kill themselves because they dont have a good job.

Countless people have killed themselves upon losing a job. Jobs are fundamental to our identity in society and the ramifications of job loss are enormous.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9530609/

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#315

This is extremely sad and I'm sorry for Suchir's family and friends. As someone who has struggled with suicidal ideation while working in the tech industry for over a decade, I do wonder if the insane culture of Bay Area tech has a part to play. Besides the extreme hustle culture mindset, there's also a kind of naive techno-optimism that can make you feel insane. You're surrounded by people who think breaking the law…

Well put. Almost all of the SF startups I worked for were run by sociopaths willing to break any rule I eventually learned. One is now being charged by the FTC for massive violations. I hated the immoral mindset of winning at the cost of everything from employee comfort to flagrantly illegal activities with customers.

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#316
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’d be hard to draw any conclusion. A whistleblower must be under extreme stress and pressure which in itself in some way or other will increase the risk of death — so that has to be taken account before saying the plausible cause for the excess deaths is assassination.

Let's start with keeping the whistleblowers alive and we have more time to figure out the cause and effect later.

Are you suggesting we put them all under suicide watch? How would we keep these people from killing themselves otherwise?

This guy had plenty of money for a therapist to help with his mental health issues.

What more do you think we could we do for them?

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#317

Police now say it's been ruled a suicide: https://sfstandard.com/2024/12/13/key-openai-whistleblower-d... https://www.forbes.com/sites/cyrusfarivar/2024/12/13/openai-... https://www.huffpost.com/entry/openai-whistleblower-dead_n_6...

[flagged]

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#318

RIP. Suchir was a man of principles, he probably had to give up his OpenAI options as a result of his stance - OpenAI is reported to have a very restrictive offboarding agreements [1] " It forbids them, for the rest of their lives, from criticizing their former employer. Even acknowledging that the NDA exists is a violation of it. If a departing employee declines to sign the document, or if they violate it, they can…

Not anymore. In May 2024 OpenAI confirmed that it will not enforce those provisions:

* The company will not cancel any vested equity, regardless of whether employees sign separation agreements or non-disparagement agreements

* Former employees have been released from their non-disparagement obligations

* OpenAI sent messages to both former and current employees confirming that it "has not canceled, and will not cancel, any vested units"

https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/24/openai_contract_staff...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-24/openai-re...

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#319
post #217

Given the outcomes of the Facebook mood experiments and how I've seen people put together very targeted ads, I'm wondering whether it's possible to induce someone (who's already under a lot of pressure) to commit suicide simply via a targeted information campaign. I'm speculating less on what happened here, and more on the general "yes that would be possible" situation. How would one protect themselves from something…

On Reddit there’s this thing about suicide prevention. Essentially, if someone thinks that you are suicidal, they can make reddit send you a very official looking “don’t do it” message. I found that people are using it to abuse those they hate. I’ve received the message a few times when I had an argument with someone. Apparently it's a thing: https://www.reddit.com/r/questions/comments/1bp1k9h/why_do_i... There’s som…

Oh, I got a lot of those for hate. The good news is it was easy to report them and I got most people who sent them banned. It's highly against reddit's TOS and something they enforce.

Re: OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

#320

Police now say it's been ruled a suicide: https://sfstandard.com/2024/12/13/key-openai-whistleblower-d... https://www.forbes.com/sites/cyrusfarivar/2024/12/13/openai-... https://www.huffpost.com/entry/openai-whistleblower-dead_n_6...

[flagged]

Good lord, what an atrocious Gish gallop of selective quotes and evidence. This might be one of the worst displays of sharpshooter logic I've ever seen.

AND it features a quote from William Pierce, an infamous neo-Nazi. Probably more, but I gave up after the umpteenth unverifiable quote. Just goes to show how much modern right-wing propaganda aligns with traditional neo-Nazi propaganda.

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