A former engineer who worked at Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has filed a legal complaint alleging he was wrongfully terminated for speaking up about AI safety risks to humanity.
Devin Kim, who currently leads a think tank dedicated to AI safety, submitted the lawsuit in a California state court this past Tuesday. He claims his attempts to establish safety protocols for the chatbot Grok made him a target within company management.
The legal filing arrives as the company’s parent, a subsidiary under the umbrella of other Musk ventures, prepares for what’s anticipated to be the largest initial public offering ever, scheduled for this Friday.
According to the court documents, 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.”
Neither xAI nor its parent company provided immediate responses when contacted about Kim’s legal action.
The Center for AI Safety, a nonprofit organization that studies potential AI risks, announced Kim’s appointment as president just last week.
The world’s wealthiest individual founded xAI in 2023, positioning it as a more secure option compared to OpenAI, an organization he had co-founded over ten years earlier. Last month, a jury dismissed Musk’s own legal challenge against OpenAI, where he alleged the company had abandoned its humanitarian mission.
Kim’s lawsuit states he joined xAI as one of its first employees in 2024 and received a promotion to a senior leadership role within months of starting.
While Kim indicates Musk wanted proper safety testing and procedures in place, the complaint alleges that Kim’s direct supervisor, xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba, ignored these instructions and dismissed Kim’s push for safety protocols.
The lawsuit claims Ba terminated Kim’s employment without warning last September, just before Kim was scheduled to deliver a presentation about AI safety to company executives.
Kim’s legal team is pursuing claims of retaliation and wrongful termination under California employment law, seeking monetary compensation that has not been specified.
Safety concerns have previously surrounded other Musk-led companies, including his space exploration venture and electric vehicle manufacturer, ranging from employee workplace hazards to questions about autonomous driving technology.
A 2023 investigation documented at least 600 previously undisclosed workplace injuries at the space company, including severe injuries such as crushed limbs, amputations, electrical injuries, and one fatality. Workers pointed to relaxed safety standards and Musk’s philosophy that the company faces urgent pressure to establish space-based alternatives due to Earth’s environmental decline.
While the space company declined to comment at that time, it has since defended its safety practices in legal documents and public statements, emphasizing its comprehensive safety training programs.
