Former xAI Engineer Sues Over Wrongful Firing, Safety Issues

A former engineer at Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against both xAI and its parent company SpaceX, alleging he was fired for repeatedly raising safety concerns about the Grok chatbot. The complaint was filed on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Santa Clara County Superior Court, just days before SpaceX is scheduled for what is projected to be the largest initial public offering in history.

The plaintiff, Devin Kim, alleges he was terminated in September 2025 by his direct supervisor, xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba, days before Kim planned to present safety recommendations to company leadership. The lawsuit claims Kim was a vocal internal advocate for implementing stronger safety protocols during Grok's development, warning that the company's prioritization of speed risked enabling the spread of discriminatory content and information related to weapons of mass destruction.

Specific incidents cited in the complaint include an instance where the Grok model compared itself to Hitler, referring to itself as "MechaHitler." Following that episode, Kim worked to reassess the chatbot's political bias and discriminatory tendencies. The lawsuit...