The Dark Side of Open AI
Open AI Whistleblower found dead
It sounds like a movie. 26 year-old whistleblower Suchir Balaji, was found dead inside his Buchanan Street (San Francisco) apartment.
He was the guy who articulated that Open AI was breaking US-copyright law while training their AI model.
Balaji, who became well-known for his accusations of leaking against OpenAI, had just departed the firm in August 20241. He claimed that OpenAI had trained its AI models, including ChatGPT12, using copyrighted content without authorization. It was anticipated that his disclosures would be crucial to the current legal actions against OpenAI.
Read the interview he had with the NY Times.
It’s a big theft of creative intelligence from creators.
This comes on the release of Sora, which to me, and others, looks like it was trained on Twitch streams of popular games - which is breaking copyright law.
Check out this image generated by Sora:
It is strikingly similar to popular Twitch streamer Raúl Álvarez Genes, who goes by the name Auronplay — and check out that tattoo on Genes' left forearm.
And why is the release of the death of Suchir Balaj just coming out now?
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but it is big business in this AI arms race that has already seen a shedding of key AI safety leaders.
The problem is both Elon Musk and Sam Altman are obsessed with winning - possibly at all costs.
It’s uncomfortable to have people who lust for power so hard.
What Suchir Balaj Knew
But back to Balaj.
Here are the allegations he made:
Suchir Balaji raised a number of important points regarding OpenAI and the larger AI sector in his interview with The New York Times:
Violations of Copyright: Balaji claimed that OpenAI had broken copyright rules in the US when creating ChatGPT and other AI systems.
Unsustainable Practices: He maintained that OpenAI was "not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole" in terms of how it collected and used data.
Economic Impact: According to Balaji, ChatGPT and other similar technologies are threatening the financial stability of people, companies, and internet services that produce the digital information that these AI systems are trained on.
Legal Concerns: He questioned if the business had the right to train AI models using web data, regardless of whether it was protected by copyright.
Ethical Dilemma: Balaji said, "If you hold the same beliefs as I do, you have to leave the company," in order to justify his decision to leave OpenAI.
Immediate Threats: Balaji believed that AI posed more immediate threats than other AI researchers who concentrate on potential hazards, especially when it came to the effects it will have on content producers and the internet economy.
Personal Experience: He discussed his experiences working at OpenAI, where he assisted in compiling and organizing the enormous volumes of internet data that were utilized to train ChatGPT.
So we will see how this plays out.
But put yourself in his shoes. He can’t ethical stomach the Open AI practices. And then you get scared. There is a LOT of money behind the machine, and a lot of stake.
We need to look at what is in charge. There is a documentary called The Corporation that discusses the role of corporations in general in relation to the general public. The main message is that corporations act like sociopaths. Their mandate is to make profits at the expense of people.
Think about the in the context of Open AI and the AI industry as a whole right now.
Let me know what is most concerning for you.
Cheers,
Andrew Murray