A former engineer at Elon Musk’s xAI has filed swimsuit towards the corporate and its dad or mum SpaceX claiming he was fired for elevating issues about AI security.
Devin Kim, who left xAI in September 2025, filed the swimsuit in a California state court docket on Tuesday. The criticism comes days earlier than SpaceX is ready to affix the general public markets in what’s shaping as much as be the biggest IPO in historical past.
In line with the lawsuit, which Trendster has seen, Kim turned a distinguished voice for AI security whereas engaged on Grok, xAI’s AI chatbot. He allegedly complained repeatedly about xAI’s failure to prioritize security in Grok’s growth, a product that has since come beneath fireplace for a spread of security and behavioral points. Particularly, Kim was involved with the chance that Grok might foment discrimination and assist unfold details about weapons of mass destruction.
“Grok, in fact, proved Mr. Kim proper by partaking in spectacular shows of on-line hatred and vitriol, with the mannequin likening itself to Hitler (‘MechaHitler’),” the lawsuit reads. “Following the Hitler debacle, Mr. Kim labored to re-evaluate Grok’s political bias and discriminatory tendencies.”
A couple of months after Kim departed xAI, Grok made headlines once more when the chatbot was used to flood X — Musk’s social media platform that additionally falls beneath the xAI umbrella — with nonconsensual sexual imagery.
The lawsuit additionally positions Kim as a whistleblower who was involved about xAI’s alleged disregard for AI security as “illegal” in areas equivalent to web regulation, client safety and unfair enterprise practices, and arms and explosives regulation, amongst others.
xAI and SpaceX didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Kim’s concentrate on AI security predates his time at xAI. Whereas working at Scale AI, Kim labored on early security AI initiatives, like main a challenge that produced coaching information for AI to coach methods to detect dangerous content material and adjust to governance insurance policies. Final week, the nonprofit Middle for AI Security, which focuses on AI dangers, named Kim as its president.
Apparently, the lawsuit doesn’t implicate Musk himself as a cause for an absence of security. Fairly, Kim’s attorneys describe Musk as having directed xAI to comply with the regulation and implement acceptable security and testing processes. As a substitute the declare targets Kim’s supervisor, xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba — who left the corporate earlier this 12 months — saying that Ba ignored Musk’s directives and retaliated towards Kim for pushing for safeguards, in an effort to “silence his repeated complaints about AI security and biases.”
The lawsuit portrays Ba as somebody who vehemently opposed AI security measures, allegedly telling Kim at one level “AI will kill us all anyway,” and who was as an alternative pushed by a mission to make xAI the primary to succeed in superintelligence.
“In a single occasion in or round August 2025, Mr. Ba tried to thwart EU security rules throughout the launch of Grok Code 1, misrepresenting points of the mannequin to be able to keep away from legally required testing,” the criticism says. “Mr. Ba indicated that he would slightly launch an unsafe mannequin than a poor-performing one. Mr. Musk in the end needed to intervene.”
In line with the lawsuit, Kim meant to offer a presentation of his findings the week of September 15, 2025, however Ba referred to as him into a gathering and informed him they need to “go [their] separate methods” with out offering a passable cause.
Trendster has reached out to Ba for remark.
Kim is in search of compensatory and punitive damages, in addition to a declaratory judgment that xAI and SpaceX’s conduct was illegal.
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