This Dec. 8, 2014 file photo shows Meryl Streep at the premiere of "Into The Woods" in New York. Streep will be the first recipient of an acting award bestowed as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. The festival’s organizers announced Friday, July 26, 2019, that Streep will receive the inaugural TIFF Tribute Actor Award during a Feb. 9 charity gala. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
TORONTO (AP) --
Meryl Streep will be the first recipient of an acting award bestowed as part of the Toronto International Film Festival.
The festival's organizers announced Friday that Streep will receive the inaugural TIFF Tribute Actor Award during a Feb. 9 charity gala. The glitzy fundraiser will support the festival's year-around efforts to promote films and the industry's leading creators.
The actress is the most nominated actor in Academy Award history and has won the Oscar three times.
The award is separate from honors bestowed on films shown at the September festival. Its People's Choice Award frequently becomes an Oscar best picture contender.
Streep stars in Steven Soderbergh's upcoming Panama Papers film "The Laundromat" with Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas. The film will have its North American premiere at TIFF.
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
