Musk's xAI is accused of illegally firing an engineer who reported security flaws in Grok

Musk's xAI is accused of illegally firing an engineer who raised concerns about AI
Reuters
A former engineer at xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was fired for raising concerns about the risks that artificial intelligence poses to humanity.
xAI owns the Grok chatbot, which was the subject of controversy for generating millions of sexualized images of women and minors.
Download the g1 app to see real-time news for free
Former employee Devin Kim claims in the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in California state court, that his efforts to establish protections in the development of the Grok chatbot made him a target of the company's leadership.
The lawsuit was filed on the eve of SpaceX's planned initial public offering (IPO) for Friday (12), which is expected to be the largest in history. xAI in prioritizing the safety of artificial intelligence, especially in relation to Grok, virtually guaranteed that the company would commit illegal acts, from fostering discrimination to contributing to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," the lawsuit states. rich in the world, founded xAI in 2023 as what he described as a safer alternative to OpenAI, an organization he helped create more than a decade earlier. Last month, a jury rejected a lawsuit filed by Musk that alleged OpenAI had strayed from its original mission to benefit humanity.
According to the new lawsuit, Kim was one of xAI's first hires in 2024 and was promoted to a leadership role just months after joining the company.
Kim claims Musk expected xAI to implement adequate security testing and procedures. However, according to the lawsuit, his supervisor, Jimmy Ba, co-founder of xAI, ignored these guidelines and rejected Kim's insistence on adopting protective mechanisms.
Kim says Ba abruptly fired him in September of last year, shortly before he was to give a presentation on artificial intelligence security to the company's leadership.
The lawsuit accuses xAI and SpaceX of retaliation and wrongful termination in violation of California law, and seeks unspecified damages.
A SpaceX and Musk's other ventures, including electric vehicle maker Tesla, have for years faced safety-related allegations, from risks to employees to concerns surrounding autonomous driving technologies.
In 2023, Reuters documented at least 600 previously undisclosed workplace accidents at SpaceX, including crushed limbs, amputations, electric shocks and one death.
Some employees attributed the problems to a perceived permissive safety culture and Musk's belief that SpaceX is in an urgent race to create a refuge in space from a declining Earth.
At the time, SpaceX did not comment on the case. In documents presented to the Court and on other occasions, however, the company defended its safety record and claimed to offer extensive training to employees.
Grok, artificial intelligence created by Elon Musk
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

Source: G1