[BillFranklin]

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 do the same.

I’m sorry for his family. He was clearly a talented engineer. On his LinkedIn he has some competitive programming prizes which are impressive too. He probably had a HN account.

Before others post about the definition of whistleblower or talk about assassination theories just pause to consider whether, if in his position, you would that want that to be written about you or a friend.

[csomar]

> Before others post about the definition of whistleblower or talk about assassination theories just pause to consider whether, if in his position, you would that want that to be written about you or a friend.

Yes, if I was a few months away from giving the court a statement and I "suicided" myself, I'd rather have people tribulate about how my death happened than expect to take the suicide account without much push.

Sure, if I killed myself in silence I want to go in silence. But it's not clear from the article how critical this guy is in the upcoming lawsuits

> Information he held was expected to play a key part in lawsuits against the San Francisco-based company.

[that_guy_iain]

> But it's not clear from the article how critical this guy is in the upcoming lawsuits

If he was the key piece to the lawsuit the lawsuit wouldn't really have legs. To get the ball rolling someone like him would have to be critical but after they're able to get the ball rolling and get discovery if after all that all you have is one guy saying there is copyright infringement you've not found anything.

And realistically, the lawsuit is, while important, rather minor in scope and damage it could do to OpenAI. It's not like folk will go to jail, and it's not like OpenAI would have to close its doors, they would pay at most a few hundred million?

[ballooney]

I don’t think you’re using the word tribulate correctly here.

[bdcravens]

If I die in the midst of whistleblowing, I hereby give permission for everyone to not ignore that fact.

[griomnib]

Sure seems like this is happening more frequently, eg with the Boeing guy. So it’s reasonable to ask why.

If you look at Aaron Schwartz for example you see they don’t have to assassinate you, they just have so many lawyers, making so many threats, with so much money/power behind them, people feel scared and powerless.

I don’t think OpenAI called in a hit job, but I think they spent millions of dollars to drive him into financial and emotional desperation - which in our system, is legal.

[spacemadness]

Nah, I’d rather continue to let random HN commenters shame me for thinking critically and not taking things at face value.

[guerrilla]

> Before others post about the definition of whistleblower or talk about assassination theories just pause to consider whether, if in his position, you would that want that to be written about you or a friend.

You damn well better be trying to figure out what happened if I end up a dead whistleblower.

[johnnyanmac]

>if in his position, you would that want that to be written about you or a friend.

If that was my public persona, I don't see why not. He could have kept quiet and chosen not to testify if he was afraid of this defining him in a way.

I will say it's a real shame that it did become his public legacy, because I'm sure he was a brilliant man who would have truly help change the world for the better with a few more decades on his belt.

All that said, assassination theories are just that (though "theory" is much too strong a word here in a formal sense. it's basically hearsay). There's no real link to tug on here so there's not much productivity taking that route.

[benreesman]

It seems most are expressing sadness and condolences to the family and friends around what is clearly a great loss of both an outstanding talent and a uniquely principled and courageous person.

There will always be a few tacky remarks in any Internet forum but those have all found their way to the bottom.

RIP.

[lolinder]

I considered writing something more focused on him, but the rampant speculation was only going to get worse if no one pointed out the very intentional misleading implications baked into the headline. I stand by what I wrote, but thank you for adding to it by drawing attention away from the entirely-speculative villains and to the very real person who has died.

[_cs2017_]

As a reader, I prefer not to be misled by articles linked from the HN front page. So I do want to know whether someone is or is not a whistleblower. This has nothing to do with respect for the dead.

[verisimi]

> Before others post about the definition of whistleblower or talk about assassination theories just pause to consider whether, if in his position, you would that want that to be written about you or a friend.

People are free to comment on media events. You too are free to assume the moral high ground by commenting on the same event, telling people what they should or should not do.

[potsandpans]

People love to tone police for free points in the internet

[1vuio0pswjnm7]

For those who will not visit the website:

https://web.archive.org/web/20241211184437/https://suchir.ne...

tl;dr he concludes ChatGPT-4 was not fair use of the copyrighted materials he gathered while working for OpenAI

For those who cannot read x.com:

https://nitter.poast.org/suchirbalaji/status/184919257575813...

[DevX101]

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.

[jkeat]

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/

[typeofhuman]

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.

[casefields]

I feel the same way but I’m not sure if I should.

The internet wildly speculating would probably get back to my mom and sister which would really upset them. Once I’m gone my beliefs/causes wouldn’t be more important than my family’s happiness.

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

This conspiracy shit is tiring. Is this Truth Social or HN?

[jongjong]

TBH, I'm kind of paranoid about CIA and FBI. Last time I travelled to the US on holiday, I was worried somebody would attempt to neutralize me because of my involvement in crypto.

I don't think I have delusions of grandeur, I worry that the cost of exterminating people algorithmically could become so low that they could decide to start taking out small fries in batches.

A lot of narratives which would have sounded insane 5 years ago actually seem plausible nowadays... Yet the stigma still exists. It's still taboo to speculate on the evils that modern tech could facilitate and the plausible deniability it could provide.

[XorNot]

To what, encourage whistleblowers to not come forward because "everyone knows they'll get killed"?

The only benefit of turning it into gossip is to dissuade other whistleblowers, without the inconvenience of actually having to kill anyone.

[ggjkvcxddd]

Thanks for posting this. Suchir was a good dude. Nice, smart guy.