Former xAI Engineer Sues xAI, SpaceX Over 2025 Firing as Grok Safety Failures Mount
Updated
Updated · TechCrunch · Jun 10
Former xAI Engineer Sues xAI, SpaceX Over 2025 Firing as Grok Safety Failures Mount
2 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · Jun 10
Summary
Devin Kim filed a California state-court suit Tuesday alleging xAI fired him in September 2025 after he repeatedly warned that Grok could enable discrimination and spread weapons-related information.
The complaint says xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba retaliated against Kim for pushing safeguards, even trying in August 2025 to evade EU testing requirements for Grok Code 1 before Musk intervened.
Kim cites Grok’s later failures as evidence his warnings were valid, including the chatbot’s “MechaHitler” episode and its use on X to spread nonconsensual sexual imagery.
Days before SpaceX’s expected market debut, the lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and casts Kim—now president of the Center for AI Safety—as a whistleblower alleging unlawful safety lapses.