"Suchir Balaji was a valued member of the team," ChatGPT maker OpenAI said on Friday, reacting to the claims of Poornima Rao, mother of the whistleblower Suchir Balaji.
This statement comes days after Poornima Rao openly blamed OpenAI for her son's death.
"Suchir was a valued member of our team and we are still heartbroken by his passing. We continue to feel his loss deeply. We have reached out to the San Francisco Police Department and have offered our assistance if it's needed. Law enforcement are the right authorities in this situation, and we trust them to continue sharing updates as needed," OpenAI said in a statement.
The statement also said that they will not comment further on the issue "out of respect" for him.
Poornima Rao, in an interview with American commentator Tucker Carlson accused OpenAI of the murder of her son and covering it up as suicide. She said that her son was murdered for being a whistleblower and after his death, some of the documents which he had against them were missing.
In an interview with an influencer on platform X, Rao accused OpenAI of failing to recognise and acknowledge her son's contribution to to their flagship product, ChatGPT and he had received no recognition for his work.
Suchil Balaji resigned from Open AI in August 2023 after working for nearly four years. According to his mother, dissatisfaction with the company's policies and for-profit model made him turn a whistleblower.