A former engineer at Elon Musk’s company xAI has filed a lawsuit against the company and its parent company SpaceX, claiming he was fired for raising concerns about the safety of artificial intelligence.
Devin Kim, who left xAI in September 2025, filed the lawsuit in California state court on Tuesday. The complaint comes just days before SpaceX’s appointment join public markets will be the largest IPO in history.
according to claimAccording to TechCrunch, Kim became a prominent voice for AI security while working on xAI’s AI chatbot Grok. He allegedly repeatedly complained that xAI did not prioritize security in the development of Grok, a product that has come under fire for a number of security and behavioral issues. In particular, Kim was concerned about the possibility that Grock might incite discrimination and help spread information about weapons of mass destruction.
“Grok, of course, proved Mr. Kim right by engaging in spectacular displays of hate and vitriol online with a model impersonating Hitler (‘MechaHitler‘),” the lawsuit states. “After Hitler’s bankruptcy, Mr. Kim attempted to reassess Groke’s political biases and discriminatory tendencies.”
A few months after Kim left xAI, Grok made headlines again when the chatbot was used to flood Xi — the social media platform that falls under Musk’s xAI umbrella. non-consensual sexual images.
The lawsuit also positions Kim as a whistleblower concerned about xAI’s disregard for AI security, which is “illegal” in areas such as internet regulation, consumer protection and unfair business practices, and gun and explosives regulation, among others.
xAI and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kim’s focus on AI security predates his time at xAI. While at Scale AI, Kim worked on early security AI initiatives, such as leading a project producing training data for artificial intelligence to train systems to detect malicious content and adhere to governance policies. Last week, the non-profit Center for AI Security, which focuses on the risks of artificial intelligence, Who’s called as its president.
Interestingly, the lawsuit doesn’t blame Musk himself for the lack of security. Instead, Kim’s lawyers describe Musk as directing xAI to comply with the law and implement appropriate security and testing processes. Instead, the lawsuit targets Kim’s boss, xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba left the company earlier this year — said Ba ignored Musk’s instructions and retaliated against Kim’s demands for assurances in an attempt to “silence repeated complaints about AI security and bias.”
The lawsuit describes Ba as someone who strongly opposes AI security measures, allegedly telling Kim at one point, “AI will kill us all anyway,” and is 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 circumvent EU safety regulations during the release of the Grok Code 1, misrepresenting aspects of the model to avoid legally required testing,” the complaint states. “Mr. Ba indicated that he would rather release a dangerous model than one that performs poorly. Mr. Musk eventually had to intervene.”
Kim allegedly intended to present his findings the week of September 15, 2025, but Ba called him to a meeting and said they “should go our separate ways,” without giving a satisfactory reason.
TechCrunch has reached out to Ba for comment.
Kim is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as a declaratory judgment that xAI and SpaceX’s conduct was unlawful.
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