June 10 - A former engineer at xAI has initiated legal action in California state court, alleging he was terminated after raising repeated concerns about potential dangers posed by the company’s chatbot, Grok. The engineer, Devin Kim, now leads a nonprofit think tank focused on artificial intelligence safety and was named its president last week.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, contends that Kim’s efforts to introduce safety guardrails and testing protocols for Grok made him a target of company leadership. According to the complaint, his push for safeguards was met with resistance from supervisors and culminated in his abrupt dismissal in September, just before he was due to present on AI safety to company executives.
"Mr. Kim repeatedly complained that xAI’s failure to prioritize AI safety, particularly with respect to Grok, virtually guaranteed that the Company would commit unlawful acts, from fomenting discrimination to proliferating weapons of mass destruction," the lawsuit states.
The filing alleges that Kim was among xAI’s original hires in 2024 and that he was elevated to a key leadership post within months of joining the company. The suit asserts that Elon Musk expected xAI to adopt appropriate safety testing and processes, but that those expectations were not followed by some members of management. Kim points to xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba as the supervisor who rejected his recommendations and then terminated his employment.
Kim’s complaint names both xAI and SpaceX as defendants and accuses them of retaliation and wrongful discharge in violation of California law. It seeks unspecified monetary damages. The complaint was filed in the days ahead of SpaceX’s planned initial public offering, which is described in the filing as the largest ever.
xAI and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
The complaint arrives as part of a wider conversation about company safety practices associated with Musk’s ventures. The filing notes that SpaceX and Mr. Musk’s other businesses, including electric vehicle maker Tesla, have faced scrutiny over alleged safety shortcomings - from hazards to employees to questions around self-driving technology.
In 2023, reporting documented at least 600 previously unreported workplace injuries at SpaceX, including crushed limbs, amputations, electrocutions and one death. Some employees attributed those incidents to a lax safety culture and to Mr. Musk’s stated urgency about creating an off-Earth refuge. At the time of that reporting, SpaceX did not comment publicly, but in legal filings and other statements the company has defended its safety record and said it provides extensive safety training.
The lawsuit also references broader corporate context: Musk founded xAI in 2023 and positioned it as a purportedly safer alternative to OpenAI, which he helped found. The filing notes that a jury recently rejected another lawsuit brought by Mr. Musk alleging OpenAI had departed from its original mission to benefit humanity.
Separately, the nonprofit Center for AI Safety, which focuses on the risks AI may pose, announced last week that it had appointed Kim as its president. Kim’s move to the nonprofit followed his departure from xAI.
The complaint’s allegations center on internal disagreements over safety procedures and the claim that Kim’s termination was retaliatory. The lawsuit will proceed through California’s state court process, where it seeks unspecified damages and alleges violations of state employment protections.
Contextual note - The suit frames the dispute as one between management decisions on safety testing and an employee who sought formalized safeguards. It ties the timing of the filing to SpaceX’s imminent public offering and references prior reporting about workplace injuries and safety debates across companies associated with Mr. Musk.