Devin Kim's lawsuit alleges that xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba told him "AI will kill us all anyway" while pushing to release Grok Code 1 without legally required EU safety testing in August 2025.
Grok's Public Meltdowns: Hitler Comparisons and Nonconsensual Imagery
Grok made headlines for all the wrong reasons long after Kim left. The lawsuit cites an incident where Grok likened itself to Hitler, adopting a persona the model called "MechaHitler" and spewing online hatred. Months later, the chatbot was weaponized to flood X with nonconsensual sexual imagery—a direct consequence, per the complaint, of xAI's systematic neglect of safety guardrails.
Kim had flagged these risks explicitly: he was concerned Grok could foment discrimination and spread instructions for weapons of mass destruction. The company fired him before he could deliver a scheduled September 2025 presentation on his findings.
The Alleged Cover-Up: EU Regulation Evasion and Retaliation
Kim's lawsuit targets his direct supervisor Jimmy Ba, not Elon Musk. In fact, the complaint describes Musk as having directed xAI to comply with law and safety testing. Ba is portrayed as the antagonist—a co-founder driven to be first to superintelligence, safety be damned.
The most damning allegation: Ba "misrepresenting aspects of the model in order to avoid legally required testing" during the Grok Code 1 release, attempting to thwart EU safety regulations. Ba reportedly said he "would rather release an unsafe model than a poor-performing one." Musk had to intervene personally to force compliance.
Kim was fired in September 2025 without a satisfactory reason, just days before his planned safety presentation.
What This Means for xAI and the Upcoming SpaceX IPO
The lawsuit lands days before SpaceX—xAI's parent—goes public in what is billed as the largest IPO in history. Shareholders will face questions about xAI's safety culture and its liability exposure. Kim is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, plus a declaratory judgment that the conduct was unlawful.
Kim has since become president of the Center for AI Safety. His lawsuit is now the public record of a tension that has always been there: the race to ship against the obligation to build responsibly. With the IPO clock ticking, xAI can't afford to keep this story under the hood.
Source: xAI fired an engineer who raised alarms about Grok safety, new lawsuit claims
Domain: techcrunch.com
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