The Death of an AI Whistleblower

mitchbob

https://archive.ph/g6TCk

Jamesbeam

I really don’t like Altman, but he is not that kind of killer. I don’t think he is capable of mediating a direct murder, especially like this. Is that interview awkward? For sure, but have you seen Zuckerberg in Congress or Musk? Those people are completely lost without a full PR team prepping them for any question that could arise upfront and fall apart when they have to go off script without anyone holding their hand or a dozen lawyers intervening on their behalf. The whistleblower protection system is dogshit. It is what kills people. His parents are hurting. Most suicides are snap decisions, and people break under pressure. They couldn’t prevent it, nor did their son allow them to talk him out of it. That’s unbelievably hurtful for the ones left behind. Can you blame them for trying to make sense of that by putting the responsibility on the entity their son was fighting an uphill battle against already? We all know the movies where the big bad corporate CEO tells his chief of security to get rid of the whistleblower/journalist, but if you look at the plausibility of actually pulling this off unnoticed, in someone’s home, in the middle of the city, it makes it very unlikely. The article includes a picture of security footage of Balaji entering his apartment with takeaway food before his death. Which means there was video surveillance, everyone and their mother having a ring camera these days. Lapse in the security footage would have been noticed by the investigators. All donut cops jokes aside, most detectives tasked with solving a potential murder case take it personally if you murder someone in their district. So to murder this man you have to get unnoticed into the vicinity of the building, you will be seen in an apartment complex, there is a chance someone remembers you especially when you’re not a regular. There are a bunch of grandmas watching every move that happens on a floor through their door spies or door spy cams. If you ever lived in an apartment complex you know the cat ladies on your floor. Then you have to force entry into the apartment. There are a dozen recording devices in every home. Mobile, stationary, working without electricity from an outlet. The chance that Siri or Alexa is catching a struggle between the people inside the apartment and whoever wants to enter is a real possibility. Then the victim probably has defence injuries. You tie them up, their wrists will show it from trying to free themselves. Even if you catch them in their sleep, you would have to bring them into a position and situation where shooting themselves is plausible. Nobody likes to be woken up mid-night by strangers, and cooperation even at gunpoint is unlikely. He would have known they came to murder him, so it doesn’t matter if you get shot in your bed or in your bathroom, but you can make sure it looks like a murder. Then you have to trick the coroner by making projectile entry and exit plausible. The victim makes a sudden move, best case, you fucked up, worst case, it’s now crawling on the floor, bleeding. Then you have to make an exit. Again unseen und unheard. This is such a complex operation that Murphy’s law will at some point catch up with you. I am not saying all of this is impossible, but why the trouble? Just run him over when he picks up takeout. It happens all the time. People run red lights, pedestrians think they can cross when they shouldn’t. It makes no sense to go to state actor level of complicated if a hit and run serves the same purpose with less risk. As much as it might hurt. It looks like suicide is the most likely thing that happened, and instead of focusing on a potential murder, the priority should be how do we protect whistleblowers better from all the trouble that whistleblowing brings because there is no proper process in place to protect them from the mental pressure they get put under by corporate lawyers and the justice system.

mark_l_watson

At the time his friends and family in interviews talked about how happy he was: after whistle blowing and leaving to start his own company. The scary thing is that there were so many huge investors who might have had him killed. People are weird when there is a lot of money involved.