A young tech engineer turned whistleblower on the dangers of artificial intelligence was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in November, and though local authorities quickly declared that death to have been a "suicide," not everyone agrees with or believes that pronouncement.

That appears to include progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who represents a nearby district and is now calling for the FBI to investigate the mysterious death of former OpenAI employee Suchir Balaji, AsAmNews reported.

The Democratic congressman's call for a federal investigation of the suspicious death came after he spoke to Balaji's grieving mother, Poornima Ramarao, who has sought to garner high-profile attention to the case and recently sat for an interview about her late son with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Death labeled "suicide" but family suspects foul play

Per AsAmNews, Balaji, 26, was a former OpenAI engineer who blew the whistle last year on that company and exposed its alleged criminal violations of federal copyright laws in terms of its ChatGPT AI program.

Balaji had published an essay detailing his concerns, done media interviews, and was scheduled to testify as part of a lawsuit against the company, but he was discovered dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 after police conducted a wellness check requested by his mother, who hadn't heard from him in several days.

Local authorities quickly announced that Balaji had been dead since Nov. 22 and declared the death to be from suicide, though few details that would support that determination have been publicly released.

Meanwhile, Balaji's family suspects foul play and, to try to prove the death was a homicide, had a private autopsy conducted and hired a private investigator, in addition to the mother speaking to anybody who would listen about her suspicions.

Dem congressman prodded into action by unlikely source

On Wednesday, in an X post directed at Balaji's mother, Ramarao, Rep. Khanna wrote, "I am heartbroken by your loss. Given your very serious concerns about foul play, I do believe that there should be a full and transparent investigation into the death by the FBI or appropriate agency."

That message came in response to an X post a couple of hours earlier from Ramarao, in which she tagged the congressman and others and wrote, "Thank you @RoKhanna for speaking about our son @suchirbalaji and assuring to support us and calling for FBI investigation."

It was later revealed that Khanna's conversation with Ramarao only came about after he was spurred into action by Tucker Carlson, who took a moment to text the congressman with details of the case in the middle of an interview with the mother about her suspicions regarding her son's untimely death.

Suchir Balaji worked as an engineer for Sam Altman building AI, until he decided that Altman was committing crimes. Balaji became a whistleblower, and soon after was found dead in his apartment. California authorities claim it was suicide. Crime scene photos clearly show a… pic.twitter.com/bVbiP8zShy

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 15, 2025

Mother convinced congressman there are "unanswered questions"

The Mercury News reported that Rep. Khanna confirmed that he'd had a "long call" with Ramarao about Balaji's suspicious death and that he had begun to "believe her that there are unanswered questions." However, when asked if he would push for a congressional investigation, the congressman replied that he would "leave the investigation to the appropriate federal law enforcement agencies."

As for Ramarao, she shared in a late-December update, "We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death. Private autopsy doesn’t confirm cause of death stated by police."

"Suchir’s apartment was ransacked , sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like some one hit him in bathroom based on blood spots," she added at that time. "It’s a cold blooded mu*d*r declared by authorities as suicide. Lobbying in SF city doesn’t stop us from getting justices. We demand FBi investigation."