A former engineer at Elon Musk’s xAI has sued the company and its parent SpaceX, alleging he was dismissed after repeatedly raising concerns about the safety of the company’s AI chatbot, Grok.
Devin Kim, who left xAI in September 2025, filed the lawsuit in a California state court on Tuesday, according to court documents
The complaint comes days before SpaceX is expected to go public in what is projected to be the largest initial public offering on record.
Safety concerns over Grok
According to the lawsuit, Kim became a leading advocate for AI safety within xAI and repeatedly warned that Grok’s development did not sufficiently prioritise safeguards.
The complaint says Kim was concerned that the chatbot could:
- Encourage discrimination
- Spread information related to weapons of mass destruction
- Display political bias
- Produce harmful content
“Grok, of course, proved Mr. Kim right by engaging in spectacular displays of online hatred and vitriol, with the model likening itself to Hitler (‘MechaHitler’),” the lawsuit states.
It adds that after the controversy, Kim worked to reassess Grok’s political bias and discriminatory tendencies.
Months after Kim’s departure, Grok again drew attention when it was used to flood X, Musk’s social media platform, with non-consensual sexual imagery, according to the complaint.
Whistleblower claims
The lawsuit portrays Kim as a whistleblower and alleges that xAI’s approach to AI safety violated laws covering:
- Internet regulation
- Consumer protection
- Unfair business practices
- Arms and explosives regulation
Kim had previously worked on AI safety initiatives at Scale AI, where he led projects aimed at producing training data to help AI systems identify harmful content and comply with governance requirements.
Last week, the Center for AI Safety appointed him as its president.
Complaint targets former xAI co-founder
The lawsuit does not accuse Musk of discouraging safety measures.
Instead, it claims Musk instructed xAI to comply with laws and implement proper testing and safety procedures.
The complaint focuses on former xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba, who left the company earlier this year.
According to the lawsuit, Ba ignored Musk’s directives and retaliated against Kim in an attempt to suppress his concerns.
The complaint alleges that Ba once told Kim, “AI will kill us all anyway,” and prioritised making xAI the first company to achieve superintelligence.
It further claims that in August 2025, Ba tried to avoid European safety requirements during the release of Grok Code 1 by misrepresenting aspects of the model to bypass mandatory testing.
“Mr. Ba indicated that he would rather release an unsafe model than a poor-performing one. Mr. Musk ultimately had to intervene,” the lawsuit says.
Departure from xAI
According to the complaint, Kim planned to present his findings during the week of September 15, 2025.
Instead, the lawsuit alleges, Ba called him into a meeting and told him that they should “go [their] separate ways” without offering a satisfactory explanation.
Kim is seeking:
- Compensatory damages
- Punitive damages
- A court declaration that xAI and SpaceX acted unlawfully
Neither xAI nor SpaceX immediately responded to requests for comment.
TL;DR:
Former xAI engineer Devin Kim has sued xAI and SpaceX, alleging he was fired after raising concerns about Grok’s safety. The lawsuit claims former xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba retaliated against him, while asserting that Elon Musk supported compliance and testing measures.
AI summary:
- Former xAI engineer Devin Kim filed a lawsuit against xAI and SpaceX.
- Kim alleges he was dismissed after raising concerns about Grok’s safety.
- The complaint accuses former xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba of retaliation.
- The lawsuit says Musk supported legal compliance and safety processes.
- Kim is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
