xAI fired an engineer who raised alarms about Grok safety, new lawsuit claims

A former engineer at Elon Musk’s xAI has filed a lawsuit against the company and its parent company SpaceX, claiming he was fired for raising concerns about AI safety.

Devin Kim, who left xAI in September 2025, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in a California state court. The complaint comes days before SpaceX is set to join the public markets in what will be the largest initial public offering in history.

According to the lawsuit, which TechCrunch reviewed, Kim became a prominent voice for AI safety while working on Grok, xAI’s AI chatbot. He is said to have repeatedly complained about xAI’s failure to prioritize safety in the development of Grok, a product that has since come under fire for a range of safety and behavioral issues. Kim was particularly concerned about the possibility that Grok could foment discrimination and help spread information about weapons of mass destruction.

“Grok, of course, proved Mr. Kim right by engaging in spectacular displays of online hate and vitriol, comparing himself to Hitler (‘MechaHitler’),” the complaint reads. “After the Hitler debacle, Mr. Kim attempted to reevaluate Grok’s political bias and discriminatory tendencies.”

A few months after Kim left xAI, Grok made headlines again when the chatbot was used to flood X – Musk’s social media platform that also falls under the xAI umbrella – with non-consensual sexual images.

The lawsuit also positions Kim as a whistleblower concerned about xAI’s alleged disregard for AI safety as “unlawful” in areas such as internet regulation, consumer protection and unfair trade practices, and regulation of weapons and explosives.

xAI and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kim’s focus on AI safety predates his time at xAI. While at Scale AI, Kim worked on early AI initiatives in security, such as leading a project that produced training data for AI to train systems to detect malicious content and comply with governance policies. Last week, the nonprofit Center for AI Safety, which focuses on AI risks, called Kim as its chairman.

Interestingly, the lawsuit does not point to Musk himself as the reason for a lack of safety. Kim’s lawyers previously described Musk ordering xAI to follow the law and implement appropriate security and testing processes. Instead, the claim focuses on Kim’s supervisor, xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba — who left the company earlier this year — and says Ba ignored Musk’s directives and retaliated against Kim for insisting on safeguards, in an effort to “silence his repeated complaints about AI safety and bias.”

The lawsuit portrays Ba as someone who fiercely opposed AI safety measures, at one point allegedly telling Kim, “AI will kill us all anyway,” and who was instead driven by a mission to make xAI the first to achieve superintelligence.

“In one instance in or around August 2025, Mr. Ba attempted to frustrate EU safety rules during the release of Grok Code 1, misrepresenting aspects of the model to avoid regulatory testing,” the complaint said. “Mr. Ba indicated that he would rather release an unsafe model than a poorly performing one. Ultimately, Mr. Musk had to intervene.”

According to the lawsuit, Kim planned to give a presentation of his findings the week of September 15, 2025, but Ba called him into a meeting and told him that they “have to go [their] different ways” without giving a satisfactory reason.

TechCrunch has reached out to Ba for comment.

Kim is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as declaratory judgment that xAI and SpaceX’s conduct was unlawful.