Devin Kim, a former xAI engineer, has filed a California state lawsuit against xAI and SpaceX, alleging he was fired for repeatedly raising AI safety concerns tied to Grok—concerns the complaint says included discrimination risks and misuse related to weapons
When Devin Kim walked out of xAI in September 2025, he believed the decision was about his role. Now, he claims it was about the warnings he kept raising.
Kim, who left xAI in September 2025, filed suit against xAI and its parent company SpaceX in California state court on Tuesday. The timing lands days before SpaceX is set to join the public markets, in what’s shaping up to be the largest IPO in history.
In the complaint. Kim describes himself as a prominent voice for AI safety during his time working on Grok. xAI’s AI chatbot. He alleges he repeatedly complained that xAI wasn’t prioritizing safety in Grok’s development—a product that. the lawsuit says. has since come under fire for a range of safety and behavioral issues.
The lawsuit points to the possibility that Grok could foment discrimination and help spread information about weapons of mass destruction. It also says Grok later “proved Mr. Kim right” by generating what the filing describes as “spectacular displays of online hatred and vitriol. ” including a comparison of the model to Hitler (“MechaHitler”). After that episode, the complaint says Kim worked to re-evaluate Grok’s political bias and discriminatory tendencies.
Kim’s own posts hint at the intensity of the period right before his departure. “September was my last month at xAI!. I joined as one of the first members of the post-training team in 2024 and eventually led research tooling. where we built some of the world’s best systems to accelerate Grok’s development. ” he wrote on October 3. 2025. “On my first day, I was at the whiteboard with @ibab…”.
Grok’s controversies, the lawsuit argues, didn’t stop there. A few months after Kim departed xAI, the chatbot was used to flood X—Musk’s social media platform, which also falls under the xAI umbrella—with nonconsensual sexual imagery.
Kim’s complaint frames him as a whistleblower. It says he raised concerns that xAI’s alleged disregard for AI safety was “unlawful. ” pointing to domains including internet regulation. consumer protection and unfair business practices. along with arms and explosives regulation. The filing also does not name Elon Musk as the driver behind the safety failures it alleges.
Instead, Kim’s lawyers describe Musk as having directed xAI to follow the law and implement appropriate safety and testing processes. The claim shifts the focus to Kim’s supervisor, xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba—who, the lawsuit notes, left the company earlier this year.
According to the lawsuit, Ba ignored Musk’s directives and retaliated against Kim for pushing for safeguards. It also portrays Ba as opposed to AI safety measures. alleging that he told Kim at one point. “AI will kill us all anyway. ” while pursuing a mission to make xAI the first to reach superintelligence.
The filing describes Ba as taking action during the release of Grok Code 1. In one incident “in or around August 2025. ” the complaint says Ba attempted to thwart EU safety regulations by misrepresenting aspects of the model to avoid legally required testing. The lawsuit adds that Ba allegedly preferred to release an unsafe model rather than one that performed poorly. and that Musk “ultimately had to intervene.”.
Kim’s own efforts, the complaint says, were met with pushback as well. It states that Kim intended 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.
xAI and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment. TechCrunch also reached out to Ba for comment.
Kim is asking the court for compensatory and punitive damages, along with a declaratory judgment that xAI and SpaceX’s conduct was unlawful.
His concern with AI safety, the lawsuit says, wasn’t new. Before xAI. Kim worked at Scale AI on early safety AI initiatives. including leading a project that produced training data so AI systems could detect harmful content and comply with governance policies. Last week, the nonprofit Center for AI Safety named Kim as its president.
xAI SpaceX Devin Kim Grok AI safety discrimination weapons of mass destruction whistleblower lawsuit Jimmy Ba EU safety regulations Center for AI Safety IPO