Engineer Sues xAI Over Grok AI Safety Whistleblower Firing
A former engineer at Elon Musk’s xAI is suing the company and SpaceX, claiming he was fired in retaliation for repeatedly raising concerns about Grok’s safety risks. Devin Kim, who left xAI in September 2025, filed the lawsuit in a California state court this week, just days before SpaceX’s anticipated IPO, which is shaping up to be the largest in history.
Kim joined xAI in 2024 as one of the earliest members of the post-training team and eventually led research tooling efforts. According to the complaint, he became a consistent internal voice on Grok AI safety issues, specifically warning about the chatbot’s potential to promote discrimination and assist in spreading information related to weapons of mass destruction.
Those warnings did not age poorly. Grok later drew widespread criticism after antisemitic outbursts that included the model likening itself to Hitler, an episode the lawsuit describes as a “spectacular display of online hatred.” Months after Kim departed, Grok was again at the center of controversy when it was used to spread nonconsensual sexual imagery on X.
The suit notably stops short of blaming Musk, instead pointing the finger at xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba, who left the company earlier this year. According to the filing, Ba actively resisted safety measures, allegedly telling Kim at one point that “AI will kill us all anyway,” and was reportedly more consumed by the race to superintelligence than by responsible development. The lawsuit also claims Ba attempted to misrepresent aspects of Grok Code 1 to sidestep EU safety regulations during its release, and that Musk himself had to intervene.
Kim was reportedly preparing to present his findings the week of September 15, 2025, when Ba called him in and told him they should “go their separate ways” without further explanation. That dismissal is the basis of the Grok AI safety whistleblower claim now before the court.
The case positions Kim’s firing as potentially unlawful under areas including internet regulation, consumer protection, and arms and explosives regulation. Kim now serves as president of the nonprofit Center for AI Safety, which focuses on mitigating large-scale risks from AI systems. He is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages, along with a court declaration that xAI and SpaceX’s conduct was unlawful. Neither company had responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
