(KRON) – Tesla CEO Elon Musk discussed the alleged suicide of OpenAI whistleblower Sushir Balaji on Joe Rogan’s latest podcast on Friday, saying Open AI CEO Sam Altman appeared guilty in a recent interview with Tucker Carlson.
“I don’t know if he’s guilty or not, but he couldn’t look more guilty,” Musk said of Altman on The Joe Rogan Experience.
Balaji — a former OpenAI engineer who helped train the AI systems behind ChatGPT and claimed it violated copyright law — committed suicide in his San Francisco apartment in November 2024, according to authorities. He was 26 years old.
Musk went on to say that based on the evidence, “all indications point to it being murder.” He suggested continuing the investigation into the case.
“His parents believe he was murdered,” Musk said. “His security camera wires were cut. Blood in two rooms, there was someone else’s wig in the room…and he requested DoorDash right before the alleged suicide, which seems unusual.”
Musk said it was “unlikely” that Balaji would kill himself.
“People I know who knew him said he wasn’t suicidal,” Musk said.
Musk ended the clip by publicly saying that he would “never, ever, ever commit suicide.”
Balaji’s death is not the first conspiracy theory that the billionaire has discussed publicly. In 2022, he tweeted a link to a rumor about an attack on the San Francisco congresswoman and husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The discussion begins about 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the podcast.