CALIFORNIA, 12 JAN

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn prevented a friend of OpenAl whistleblower Suchir Balaji, who was found dead in his San Francisco flat in November, from tagging him on a post a week before his death, his mother Poornima Ramarao claimed.

"So, there are forces at work," she said. "(The friend) has been trying to ... post (Suchir's) accomplishments on Linkedln. Suspiciously, he has been blocked," Poornima added.

Speaking to an influencer on X, Rao accused OpenAI of failing to recognise her son's contributions to their flagship product, ChatGPT. "He did something to fine-tune ChatGPT that made it faster and more efficient," she told X user Mario Nawfal. "But what bothered him was that there was no recognition for his work until he passed away. Even now, there's no acknowledgement from OpenAI of his contributions. That's very unfortunate."

Balaji resigned in August 2023 after expressing dissatisfaction with the company's shift to a for-profit model. According to his mother, this shift was a key factor in his decision to leave.