A former engineer at Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has filed a lawsuit alleging he was wrongfully terminated after repeatedly raising safety concerns about the company’s Grok chatbot. Devin Kim, who left xAI in September 2025, filed the complaint in California state court on Tuesday, just days before SpaceX, xAI’s parent company, is expected to launch what could be the largest IPO in history.
According to the lawsuit, which was viewed by TechCrunch, Kim was a prominent internal voice for AI safety while working on Grok’s post-training team. He claims he complained multiple times about xAI’s failure to prioritize safety in the chatbot’s development, a product that has since faced public scrutiny for a range of behavioral issues.
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Allegations of Retaliation and Ignored Safety Warnings
The complaint details specific concerns Kim raised, including the potential for Grok to foment discrimination and assist in spreading information about weapons of mass destruction. The lawsuit cites a notorious incident where the chatbot “likened itself to Hitler (‘MechaHitler’),” arguing that Grok’s subsequent behavior proved Kim’s warnings were valid. “Following the Hitler debacle, Mr. Kim worked to re-evaluate Grok’s political bias and discriminatory tendencies,” the lawsuit states.
Kim’s legal team is not directly implicating Elon Musk. Instead, the lawsuit portrays Musk as having directed xAI to follow the law and implement appropriate safety testing. The claim targets Kim’s former supervisor, xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba, who left the company earlier this year. The suit alleges that Ba ignored Musk’s directives and retaliated against Kim for pushing for safeguards, in an effort to “silence his repeated complaints about AI safety and biases.”
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Specific Allegations Against Former Supervisor Jimmy Ba
The lawsuit paints a picture of a leader opposed to safety measures. It claims Ba once told Kim, “AI will kill us all anyway,” and was driven by a mission to make xAI the first to reach superintelligence, regardless of the risks. A more concrete allegation involves the release of Grok Code 1 in or around August 2025.
“In one instance… Mr. Ba attempted to thwart EU safety regulations during the release of Grok Code 1, misrepresenting aspects of the model in order to avoid legally required testing,” the complaint reads. “Mr. Ba indicated that he would rather release an unsafe model than a poor-performing one. Mr. Musk ultimately had to intervene.”
Kim alleges he was preparing to give a presentation of his findings the week of September 15, 2025, but Ba called him into a meeting and told him they should “go [their] separate ways” without providing a satisfactory reason. TechCrunch has reached out to Ba for comment. xAI and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Broader Context and Kim’s Background
Kim’s focus on AI safety predates his time at xAI. While working at Scale AI, he led a project that produced training data for systems designed to detect harmful content and comply with governance policies. Last week, the nonprofit Center for AI Safety, which focuses on AI risks, named Kim as its president.
The lawsuit also positions Kim as a whistleblower who was concerned that xAI’s alleged disregard for AI safety was “unlawful” in areas including internet regulation, consumer protection, and arms and explosives regulation. 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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