In this undated photo provided by This Is Just A Test (TIJAT) Media and the A&E Network, peace activist Arno Michaelis, left, speaks with Chris Buckley, the Grand Knighthawk for the North Georgia White Knights, on A&E's documentary series "Escaping the KKK: A Documentary Series Exposing Hate in America," which premieres on January 10 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. (TIJAT/A&E via AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) --
A&E is changing the name of its eight-part documentary series about the Ku Klux Klan.
The network says the series will now be called "Escaping the KKK: A Documentary Series Exposing Hate in America," not "Generation KKK" as announced earlier this week.
A&E said in a statement Friday that the change was needed to "ensure that no one can mistake its intent and that the title alone does not serve to normalize the Klan."
The network also said civil rights organizations including the Anti-Defamation League and Color of Change will create educational curricula and other materials to help contextualize the show's content.
"Escaping the KKK" follows individuals and families trying to extract themselves from the racist and anti-Semitic hate group.
Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018. Balaji was a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died in November 2024. (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP)
Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.
Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.
"We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.
Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.
His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.
Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.
"Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More
