xAI fires developer who raised alarms about Grok security, new lawsuit claims

A former engineer at Elon Musk’s xAI has sued the company and its parent SpaceX, claiming he was fired for raising concerns about AI safety.

Devin Kim, who left xAI in September 2025, filed the lawsuit in California district court on Tuesday. The appeal comes days before SpaceX is set to join the public markets in what is shaping up to be the largest IPO in history.

According to the lawsuit, which TechCrunch has seen, Kim became a prominent voice for AI security while working on Grok, xAI’s AI chatbot. He is said to have repeatedly complained about xAI’s failure to prioritize security in the development of Grok, a product that has already been plagued by numerous security and ethical issues. In particular, Kim was concerned that Grok might incite racism and help spread information about weapons of mass destruction.

“Yes, Grok proved Mr. Kim right by engaging in dramatic displays of online hate, a model impersonating Hitler (‘MechaHitler’),” the lawsuit reads. “After the Hitler debate, Mr. Kim worked to reevaluate Grok’s political bias and prejudice.”

A few months after Kim left xAI, Grok made headlines again when a chatbot was used to flood X — Musk’s social media platform that also falls under the xAI umbrella — with unconsented porn.

The lawsuit also names Kim as a whistleblower who was concerned about xAI’s alleged disregard for AI security as “unlawful” in areas such as Internet regulation, consumer protection and unfair business practices, and arms and explosives control, 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 working at Scale AI, Kim worked on early security AI projects, such as leading a project that generated AI training data to train systems to detect malicious content and comply with governance policies. Last week, the non-profit AI Safety Institute, which focuses on AI risks, named Kim as its president.

Interestingly, the lawsuit does not include Musk himself as the reason for the lack of security. Instead, Kim’s lawyers described Musk as instructing xAI to follow the law and implement proper security and inspection procedures. Instead, the lawsuit is directed at Kim’s boss, xAI founder Jimmy Ba — who left the company earlier this year — alleging that Ba ignored Musk’s directives and retaliated against Kim by seeking protection, in an effort to “silence his repeated complaints about AI safety and bias.”

The lawsuit portrays Ba as a staunch opponent of AI security measures, allegedly telling Kim at one point that “AI is going to kill us all,” and instead driven by the goal of making xAI the first to reach superintelligence.

“At one point in August 2025 or thereabouts, Mr. Ba attempted to circumvent EU safety regulations during the release of Grok Code 1, misrepresenting features of the model to avoid legally required testing,” the complaint said. “Mr. Ba expressed that he would rather release an unsafe model than a malfunctioning one. In the end, Mr. Musk had to step in.”

According to the lawsuit, Kim intended to present his findings the week of September 15, 2025, but Ba called him to a meeting and told him they should “go. [their] different ways” without giving a satisfactory reason.

TechCrunch has contacted Ba for comment.

Kim is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as a declaratory judgment that xAI and SpaceX’s conduct was unlawful.