In this April 26, 2017 file photo, Tom Hanks attends "The Circle" premiere during the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) --
Actor Tom Hanks is being honored by the National Archives Foundation in Washington.
The National Archives Foundation, the nonprofit partner to the National Archives, announced Monday that Hanks will receive its 2017 Records of Achievement Award. The foundation says the honor will recognize Hanks' career supporting history through both acting and filmmaking.
In a statement, the foundation says it is honoring Hanks for "for his powerful illumination of the American story through his vast body of work in film and television during the past four decades."
The foundation says Hanks will receive the award at the foundation's annual gala on Oct. 21 at the National Archives Museum in Washington. The gala will include a question and answer session with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.
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
