This photo provided by Tasnim News Agency, shows American movie director Oliver Stone in a photo opportunity while attending the Fajr International Film Festival, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 23, 2018. (Hamed Malekpour/Tasnim News Agency via AP)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) --
American movie director Oliver Stone was in Iran on Monday attending an international film festival.
Stone hosted a workshop for filmmakers during the Fajr Film Festival and planned to hold a news conference on Wednesday, Iranian media reported. French actor Jean-Pierre Léaud and Italian producer Giovanni Spagnoletti are also attending the festival.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency said Stone briefly visited the historical city of Isfahan the previous day.
This is the Hollywood director's first visit to Iran.
In 2007, Iran's then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected a proposal by Stone to make a film about him. Ahmadinejad said at the time that Stone is part the "Great Satan" cultural establishment, a reference to the United States.
In 2012, Stone's son Sean Stone visited Iran and converted to Shiite Islam.
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
