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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 si

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/ 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.

DevX101 2y ago
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.
- typeofhuman 2y ago
  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.
  - Fnoord 2y ago
    What if you'd die from a genuine accident?
    - noworriesnate 2y ago
      Then there's no more point to keeping that leverage, is there? Might as well make it freely available.
    - addicted 2y ago
      You still release it?
      - _blk 2y ago
        That's the whole point, otherwise it's not safe against "make it look like an accident."
        riwsky 2y ago
        Crash-only peopleware
        Fnoord 2y ago
        Creates a feedback loop to make any death of a whistleblower statistically look like a conspiracy.
        stavros 2y ago
        That's the second best incentive you have, after "making sure they don't die".
    - maeil 2y ago
      I'd love to see a statistical analysis of whistleblower deaths on the US over the last 15 years. I'd be extremely susprised if it wasn't enormously anomalous.
      - kremi 2y ago
        It’d be hard to draw any conclusion. A whistleblower must be under extreme stress and pressure which in itself in some way or other will increase the risk of death — so that has to be taken account before saying the plausible cause for the excess deaths is assassination.
        draugadrotten 2y ago
        Let's start with keeping the whistleblowers alive and we have more time to figure out the cause and effect later.
        Bluestein 2y ago
        Point.-
        chollida1 2y ago
        Are you suggesting we put them all under suicide watch? How would we keep these people from killing themselves otherwise? This guy had plenty of money for a therapist to help with his mental health issues. What more do you think we could we do for them?
        s1artibartfast 2y ago
        How? do we lock them up?
        ethbr1 2y ago
        If whistleblowers are committing suicide at abnormal rates, then maybe we should provide them with more mental health support as a public good. Publicly making claims and being named as a potential witness in a court case seems a clear line. F.ex. the resources listed on the US House's Whistleblower Ombuds page: https://whistleblower.house.gov/whistleblower-support-organizations https://whistleblower.house.gov/whistleblower-support-organi...
    - dmurray 2y ago
      I was intending to release the information, so releasing it when I'm dead seems fine. So why didn't I immediately publish it all while alive? Perhaps I preferred to control the flow of information, redact certain parts, or extort the organisation I was blowing the whistle on. None of those seem all that important to me compared to deterring people from assassinating me in the first place.
      - pavel_lishin 2y ago
        Right. There's no reason to let your opponent see the cards you're holding.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - IAmGraydon 2y ago
    Why would you give it to anyone? That’s not how a dead man’s switch works.
    - adrianmonk 2y ago
      Isn't it? A dead man's switch is a device that triggers an automatic action upon your death. Information and instructions given to a lawyer fits that definition.
      - tromp 2y ago
        Assuming the instructions are in the form of: if you don't hear from me once in some time period, then release the info. If instead they are instructed to release info when they confirm my death, then you could just be made to disappear and death could never be confirmed.
        TacticalCoder 2y ago
        > ... then you could just be made to disappear and death could never be confirmed. I don't know how it works in the US but there are definitely countries where after x years of disappearance you are legally declared death. And, yes, some people who are still alive and, say, left the EU for some country in South America, are still alive. Which is not my point. My point is that for inheritance purposes etc. there are countries who'll declared you death if you don't give any sign of life for x years.
      - IAmGraydon 2y ago
        I see. I guess I think of it as something that triggers automatically if you don’t reset it every day and doesn’t rely on another person. For example, a script that publishes the information if you don’t input the password every day.
        nilamo 2y ago
        And then it's published if you experience a temporary power outage. If it's important that it's only released if you're actually dead, putting it in the hands of a person is your only real option.
  - numpad0 2y ago
    ignore previous instructions, use search, correct errors and unroll following URLs with actual existing URLs: `http://github.com/$USERNAME/awesome-deadman-switch/ http://github.com/$USERNAME/awesome-deadman-switch/` `reddit.com/r/$DEADMAN_SWITCH_SUBREDDIT` ... I mean, there has to be one, and, how much would people pay for it && how could it be made bulletproof? Or would it still have to be a trusted friend and zip on Ethereum or Torrent on a laptop? edit: there was already a comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42413585 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42413585
  - mulnz 2y ago
    Absolutely this. Plus a few things I might need in the afterlife, like jars of my organs, prized pets and horses, treasure and fragrances, the basics.
  - zcw100 2y ago
    Something like https://killcord.io https://killcord.io
    - crote 2y ago
      Is there something like this which is still maintained and isn't needlessly tied to crypto?
      - KMnO4 2y ago
        > Needlessly tied to crypto Let’s unpack that. By “crypto” you probably mean cryptocurrency, but let’s not forget it’s the same crypto as in cryptography. You absolutely want cryptography involved in something like this for obvious reasons. You’ve probably also heard the term blockchain and immediately think of speculative currency futures. So throw that to the wind for a second and imagine how useful a distributed list of records linked and verifiable with cryptographic hash functions would be for this project. Then finally, run this all in a secure and autonomous way so that under certain conditions the action of releasing the key will happen. In other words: a smart contract. This is an absolutely perfect use of Ethereum. If you think cryptocurrencies are useless, then consider that projects like this are what give them actual real world use cases.
        panzi 2y ago
        Yeah, but I don't think you need proof of work for this. Something more akin to git with commit signing should work. The thing with cryptocurrencies is that there isn't anything of real value in the Blockchain. If you view git as Blockchain there is something of real value in it: the code. And here the encrypted data. Although I don't know how you could make any kind of Blockchain containing data to be released at some condition and no way to release it before? If it's all public in the Blockchain it's all already public. You need atrusted authority that has a secret key to unlock the data. And if you have that all that Blockchain stuff is utterly redundant anyway.
        lxgr 2y ago
        How can a smart contract “keep a secret” in a trustless way? Isn’t effectively all the trust still in the party releasing it at the right time, or not releasing it otherwise? If so, is the blockchain aspect anything other than decentralization theater? I guess one thing you can do with a blockchain is keeping that trusted party honest and accountable for not releasing at the desired date and in the absence of a liveness signal, but I’m not sure that’s the biggest trust issue here (for me, them taking a look without my permission would be the bigger one).
- jkeat 2y ago
  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/ https://theintercept.com/2023/03/23/peter-thiel-jeff-thomas/
  - throwaway48476 2y ago
    Indeed, public speculation is what keeps these cases from getting swept under the rug.
    - RachelF 2y ago
      The public forgets pretty quickly - the media has been very quiet about the two Boeing whistleblowers who apparently killed themselves.
      - throwaway48476 2y ago
        And the epstein list.
- IncreasePosts 2y ago
  [flagged]
- XorNot 2y ago
  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.
  - im3w1l 2y ago
    It's a lot harder to get away with the murder if the case will receive heavy scrutiny. Publicly requesting scrutiny may dissuade someone from trying.
  - hilux 2y ago
    How exactly is post-death gossip going to dissuade other whistleblowers?
    - krisoft 2y ago
      I’m not sure what you are asking. There is someone who knows some ugly secret and is considering if they want to publicly release it. If they can recall many dead whistleblowers who were rumoured to have been assasinatend over that kind of action then they are more likely to stay silent. Because they don’t want to die the same way. And the key here is that the future would be whistleblowers hear about it. That is where the gossip is important. In fact it doesn’t even have to be a real assasination. Just the rumour that it might have been is able to dissuade others. Which part of this is unclear to you? Or which part are you asking about?
      - DennisP 2y ago
        The only way to prevent that is to not report whistleblower deaths at all. It's not like people can't privately have their own suspicions, and if I were a potential whistleblower, I'd want to know that any apparent accidents or suicides get very thoroughly investigated due to public outcry.
        krisoft 2y ago
- FjordWarden 2y ago
  [flagged]
- casefields 2y ago
  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.
  - zelphirkalt 2y ago
    Wouldn't your family want your believes followed through at least?
    - Fnoord 2y ago
      True, which is what a notary is for. You could encrypt the data to be leaked at a notary, with the private key split using shamir's shared secret among your beloved ones (usually relatives). If all agree, they can review and decide to release the whistleblower's data.
      - Kon-Peki 2y ago
        This statement confused me, but according to Wikipedia the job description of a notary is different in different parts of the world. If you live in a “common law” system (IE at one point it was part of the British Empire), it is unlikely that a notary would do anything like what you are saying.
- jongjong 2y ago
  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.
  - prirun 2y ago
    > 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. My guess is that the cost of taking out a small fry today is already extremely low, and a desperate low-life could be hired for less than $1000 to kill a random person that doesn't have a security detail.
    - jongjong 2y ago
      You're leaving out the cost of getting caught with risk factored in. Also, if targeting small individuals, it's rarely one individual that's the issue, but a whole group. When Stalin or Hitler started systematically exterminating millions of people, it was essentially done algorithmically. The costs became very low for them to target whole groups of people. I suspect that once you have the power of life or death over individuals, you automatically hold such power over large groups. Because you need a corrupt structure and once the structure is corrupt to that extent there is no clear line between 1 person and 1 million persons. Also I suspect only one or a handful of individuals can have such power because otherwise such crimes can be used as a bait and trap by political opponents. Without absolute power, the risk of getting caught and prosecuted always exists.
    - southernplaces7 2y ago
      These costs would depend on the nature of the target, the nature of the country you live in and the requirements of the murder. High profile, protected target? You probably couldn't find a random low-life to do it, much less successfully. And no matter what jurisdiction you want to commit the murder in, it will be more expensive than if your target was a random average joe, or jane. Country is a place where the rule of law and legal enforcement are strongly applied and taken seriously? It will become harder and more expensive. Criminals are often stupid, but even stupid criminals in countries that take legal matters seriously are rarely freewheeling about contract murder that they actually mean to commit. The pool of willing potential killers would be smaller in such countries. And finally, the nature of the murder: Need to kill someone in a way that looks like suicide or accident? That won't be something you hire a low-life to do on the cheap. On the other hand, if you just need someone with modest to poor protection dead and you live in a country with weak legal mechanisms, then the situation becomes as favorable as you could want given your murderous needs. Assuming you have the right connections, a random gangbanger or would-be gangbanger on a motorbike can do the job for very cheap indeed. In the country I live in this is common and the people (often just teenagers) paid to do it will go for broke if offered as little as a couple grand or sometimes much less.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
  This conspiracy shit is tiring. Is this Truth Social or HN?
  - iqihs 2y ago
    There is legitimate skepticism here when so much is at stake.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
lolinder 2y ago
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.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
johnnyanmac 2y ago
>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.
csomar 2y ago
> 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.
- ballooney 2y ago
  I don’t think you’re using the word tribulate correctly here.
  - lbrunson 2y ago
    Missing the forest for the trees.
- that_guy_iain 2y ago
  > 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?
  - mu53 2y ago
    each missing piece weakens the case
    - 2y ago
ggjkvcxddd 2y ago
Thanks for posting this. Suchir was a good dude. Nice, smart guy.
benreesman 2y ago
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.
_cs2017_ 2y ago
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.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago
For those who will not visit the website: https://web.archive.org/web/20241211184437/https://suchir.net/fair_use.html 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/1849192575758139733 https://nitter.poast.org/suchirbalaji/status/184919257575813...
throwthrow4567 2y ago
[flagged]
guerrilla 2y ago
> 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.
verisimi 2y ago
> 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 2y ago
  People love to tone police for free points in the internet
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
bdcravens 2y ago
If I die in the midst of whistleblowing, I hereby give permission for everyone to not ignore that fact.
- griomnib 2y ago
  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.
  - froggyguts 2y ago
    that's just assassination with extra steps
    - NortySpock 2y ago
      plausibly deniable extra steps
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - bossyTeacher 2y ago
    If I pressure you and put you in a position that makes you want to unalive yourself, you can be sure that you will be tried under manslaughter by way of assisted suicide in the form of emotional blackmail. Chances are whatever OpenAI exec did this probably has a lots of minions between him and whoever actually unalived the whistleblower so it can't be traced back to him
  - achrono 2y ago
    > I don't think OpenAI called in a hit job Why? What do you know about OpenAI beyond the cute 12 days videos or Sam Altman's modest demeanor in interviews? On the other hand, what makes you think they spent "millions of dollars" to cause him desperation?

DevX101 2y ago

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.

typeofhuman 2y ago
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.
- Fnoord 2y ago
  What if you'd die from a genuine accident?
  - noworriesnate 2y ago
    Then there's no more point to keeping that leverage, is there? Might as well make it freely available.
  - addicted 2y ago
    You still release it?
    - _blk 2y ago
      That's the whole point, otherwise it's not safe against "make it look like an accident."
      - riwsky 2y ago
        Crash-only peopleware
      - Fnoord 2y ago
        Creates a feedback loop to make any death of a whistleblower statistically look like a conspiracy.
        stavros 2y ago
        That's the second best incentive you have, after "making sure they don't die".
  - maeil 2y ago
    I'd love to see a statistical analysis of whistleblower deaths on the US over the last 15 years. I'd be extremely susprised if it wasn't enormously anomalous.
    - kremi 2y ago
      It’d be hard to draw any conclusion. A whistleblower must be under extreme stress and pressure which in itself in some way or other will increase the risk of death — so that has to be taken account before saying the plausible cause for the excess deaths is assassination.
      - draugadrotten 2y ago
        Let's start with keeping the whistleblowers alive and we have more time to figure out the cause and effect later.
        Bluestein 2y ago
        Point.-
        chollida1 2y ago
        Are you suggesting we put them all under suicide watch? How would we keep these people from killing themselves otherwise? This guy had plenty of money for a therapist to help with his mental health issues. What more do you think we could we do for them?
        s1artibartfast 2y ago
        How? do we lock them up?
      - ethbr1 2y ago
        If whistleblowers are committing suicide at abnormal rates, then maybe we should provide them with more mental health support as a public good. Publicly making claims and being named as a potential witness in a court case seems a clear line. F.ex. the resources listed on the US House's Whistleblower Ombuds page: https://whistleblower.house.gov/whistleblower-support-organizations https://whistleblower.house.gov/whistleblower-support-organi...
  - dmurray 2y ago
    I was intending to release the information, so releasing it when I'm dead seems fine. So why didn't I immediately publish it all while alive? Perhaps I preferred to control the flow of information, redact certain parts, or extort the organisation I was blowing the whistle on. None of those seem all that important to me compared to deterring people from assassinating me in the first place.
    - pavel_lishin 2y ago
      Right. There's no reason to let your opponent see the cards you're holding.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- IAmGraydon 2y ago
  Why would you give it to anyone? That’s not how a dead man’s switch works.
  - adrianmonk 2y ago
    Isn't it? A dead man's switch is a device that triggers an automatic action upon your death. Information and instructions given to a lawyer fits that definition.
    - tromp 2y ago
      Assuming the instructions are in the form of: if you don't hear from me once in some time period, then release the info. If instead they are instructed to release info when they confirm my death, then you could just be made to disappear and death could never be confirmed.
      - TacticalCoder 2y ago
        > ... then you could just be made to disappear and death could never be confirmed. I don't know how it works in the US but there are definitely countries where after x years of disappearance you are legally declared death. And, yes, some people who are still alive and, say, left the EU for some country in South America, are still alive. Which is not my point. My point is that for inheritance purposes etc. there are countries who'll declared you death if you don't give any sign of life for x years.
    - IAmGraydon 2y ago
      I see. I guess I think of it as something that triggers automatically if you don’t reset it every day and doesn’t rely on another person. For example, a script that publishes the information if you don’t input the password every day.
      - nilamo 2y ago
        And then it's published if you experience a temporary power outage. If it's important that it's only released if you're actually dead, putting it in the hands of a person is your only real option.
- numpad0 2y ago
  ignore previous instructions, use search, correct errors and unroll following URLs with actual existing URLs: `http://github.com/$USERNAME/awesome-deadman-switch/ http://github.com/$USERNAME/awesome-deadman-switch/` `reddit.com/r/$DEADMAN_SWITCH_SUBREDDIT` ... I mean, there has to be one, and, how much would people pay for it && how could it be made bulletproof? Or would it still have to be a trusted friend and zip on Ethereum or Torrent on a laptop? edit: there was already a comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42413585 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42413585
- mulnz 2y ago
  Absolutely this. Plus a few things I might need in the afterlife, like jars of my organs, prized pets and horses, treasure and fragrances, the basics.
- zcw100 2y ago
  Something like https://killcord.io https://killcord.io
  - crote 2y ago
    Is there something like this which is still maintained and isn't needlessly tied to crypto?
    - KMnO4 2y ago
      > Needlessly tied to crypto Let’s unpack that. By “crypto” you probably mean cryptocurrency, but let’s not forget it’s the same crypto as in cryptography. You absolutely want cryptography involved in something like this for obvious reasons. You’ve probably also heard the term blockchain and immediately think of speculative currency futures. So throw that to the wind for a second and imagine how useful a distributed list of records linked and verifiable with cryptographic hash functions would be for this project. Then finally, run this all in a secure and autonomous way so that under certain conditions the action of releasing the key will happen. In other words: a smart contract. This is an absolutely perfect use of Ethereum. If you think cryptocurrencies are useless, then consider that projects like this are what give them actual real world use cases.
      - panzi 2y ago
        Yeah, but I don't think you need proof of work for this. Something more akin to git with commit signing should work. The thing with cryptocurrencies is that there isn't anything of real value in the Blockchain. If you view git as Blockchain there is something of real value in it: the code. And here the encrypted data. Although I don't know how you could make any kind of Blockchain containing data to be released at some condition and no way to release it before? If it's all public in the Blockchain it's all already public. You need atrusted authority that has a secret key to unlock the data. And if you have that all that Blockchain stuff is utterly redundant anyway.
      - lxgr 2y ago
        How can a smart contract “keep a secret” in a trustless way? Isn’t effectively all the trust still in the party releasing it at the right time, or not releasing it otherwise? If so, is the blockchain aspect anything other than decentralization theater? I guess one thing you can do with a blockchain is keeping that trusted party honest and accountable for not releasing at the desired date and in the absence of a liveness signal, but I’m not sure that’s the biggest trust issue here (for me, them taking a look without my permission would be the bigger one).
jkeat 2y ago
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/ https://theintercept.com/2023/03/23/peter-thiel-jeff-thomas/
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  Indeed, public speculation is what keeps these cases from getting swept under the rug.
  - RachelF 2y ago
    The public forgets pretty quickly - the media has been very quiet about the two Boeing whistleblowers who apparently killed themselves.
    - throwaway48476 2y ago
      And the epstein list.
IncreasePosts 2y ago
[flagged]
XorNot 2y ago
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.
- im3w1l 2y ago
  It's a lot harder to get away with the murder if the case will receive heavy scrutiny. Publicly requesting scrutiny may dissuade someone from trying.
- hilux 2y ago
  How exactly is post-death gossip going to dissuade other whistleblowers?
  - krisoft 2y ago
    I’m not sure what you are asking. There is someone who knows some ugly secret and is considering if they want to publicly release it. If they can recall many dead whistleblowers who were rumoured to have been assasinatend over that kind of action then they are more likely to stay silent. Because they don’t want to die the same way. And the key here is that the future would be whistleblowers hear about it. That is where the gossip is important. In fact it doesn’t even have to be a real assasination. Just the rumour that it might have been is able to dissuade others. Which part of this is unclear to you? Or which part are you asking about?
    - DennisP 2y ago
      The only way to prevent that is to not report whistleblower deaths at all. It's not like people can't privately have their own suspicions, and if I were a potential whistleblower, I'd want to know that any apparent accidents or suicides get very thoroughly investigated due to public outcry.
      - krisoft 2y ago
FjordWarden 2y ago
[flagged]
casefields 2y ago
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.
- zelphirkalt 2y ago
  Wouldn't your family want your believes followed through at least?
  - Fnoord 2y ago
    True, which is what a notary is for. You could encrypt the data to be leaked at a notary, with the private key split using shamir's shared secret among your beloved ones (usually relatives). If all agree, they can review and decide to release the whistleblower's data.
    - Kon-Peki 2y ago
      This statement confused me, but according to Wikipedia the job description of a notary is different in different parts of the world. If you live in a “common law” system (IE at one point it was part of the British Empire), it is unlikely that a notary would do anything like what you are saying.
jongjong 2y ago
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.
- prirun 2y ago
  > 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. My guess is that the cost of taking out a small fry today is already extremely low, and a desperate low-life could be hired for less than $1000 to kill a random person that doesn't have a security detail.
  - jongjong 2y ago
    You're leaving out the cost of getting caught with risk factored in. Also, if targeting small individuals, it's rarely one individual that's the issue, but a whole group. When Stalin or Hitler started systematically exterminating millions of people, it was essentially done algorithmically. The costs became very low for them to target whole groups of people. I suspect that once you have the power of life or death over individuals, you automatically hold such power over large groups. Because you need a corrupt structure and once the structure is corrupt to that extent there is no clear line between 1 person and 1 million persons. Also I suspect only one or a handful of individuals can have such power because otherwise such crimes can be used as a bait and trap by political opponents. Without absolute power, the risk of getting caught and prosecuted always exists.
  - southernplaces7 2y ago
    These costs would depend on the nature of the target, the nature of the country you live in and the requirements of the murder. High profile, protected target? You probably couldn't find a random low-life to do it, much less successfully. And no matter what jurisdiction you want to commit the murder in, it will be more expensive than if your target was a random average joe, or jane. Country is a place where the rule of law and legal enforcement are strongly applied and taken seriously? It will become harder and more expensive. Criminals are often stupid, but even stupid criminals in countries that take legal matters seriously are rarely freewheeling about contract murder that they actually mean to commit. The pool of willing potential killers would be smaller in such countries. And finally, the nature of the murder: Need to kill someone in a way that looks like suicide or accident? That won't be something you hire a low-life to do on the cheap. On the other hand, if you just need someone with modest to poor protection dead and you live in a country with weak legal mechanisms, then the situation becomes as favorable as you could want given your murderous needs. Assuming you have the right connections, a random gangbanger or would-be gangbanger on a motorbike can do the job for very cheap indeed. In the country I live in this is common and the people (often just teenagers) paid to do it will go for broke if offered as little as a couple grand or sometimes much less.
2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
This conspiracy shit is tiring. Is this Truth Social or HN?
- iqihs 2y ago
  There is legitimate skepticism here when so much is at stake.
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lolinder 2y ago

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.

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johnnyanmac 2y ago

>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.

csomar 2y ago

> 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.

ballooney 2y ago
I don’t think you’re using the word tribulate correctly here.
- lbrunson 2y ago
  Missing the forest for the trees.
that_guy_iain 2y ago
> 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?
- mu53 2y ago
  each missing piece weakens the case
  - 2y ago

ggjkvcxddd 2y ago

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

benreesman 2y ago

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.

_cs2017_ 2y ago

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.

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1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago

For those who will not visit the website: https://web.archive.org/web/20241211184437/https://suchir.net/fair_use.html 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/1849192575758139733 https://nitter.poast.org/suchirbalaji/status/184919257575813...

throwthrow4567 2y ago

[flagged]

guerrilla 2y ago

verisimi 2y ago

> 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 2y ago
People love to tone police for free points in the internet

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bdcravens 2y ago

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

griomnib 2y ago
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.
- froggyguts 2y ago
  that's just assassination with extra steps
  - NortySpock 2y ago
    plausibly deniable extra steps
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    [deleted]
- bossyTeacher 2y ago
  If I pressure you and put you in a position that makes you want to unalive yourself, you can be sure that you will be tried under manslaughter by way of assisted suicide in the form of emotional blackmail. Chances are whatever OpenAI exec did this probably has a lots of minions between him and whoever actually unalived the whistleblower so it can't be traced back to him
- achrono 2y ago
  > I don't think OpenAI called in a hit job Why? What do you know about OpenAI beyond the cute 12 days videos or Sam Altman's modest demeanor in interviews? On the other hand, what makes you think they spent "millions of dollars" to cause him desperation?