Artificial Intelligence vs. Intellectual Property

Much of AI is not about generating new knowledge, but about distributing existing knowledge in new form. That creates copyright conflicts. And it threatens how humans will collaborate in the future.

Suchir Balaji, an AI researcher, worked for four years at OpenAI. He resigned in August 2024 citing ethical and legal concerns about OpenAI’s stance on intellectual property. In November 2024, he was found dead in his apartment in San Francisco. The death was ruled suicide by gunshot.

The case briefly made the news and put Balaji’s concerns in the spotl…