The US has accused a former Google software engineer of stealing trade secrets related to artificial intelligence (AI) while surreptitiously working for two Chinese companies.
Leon Ding, whose real name is Linwei Ding, was taken into custody on Wednesday after being charged with four felonies in California.
More than 500 private files are said to have been taken by the Chinese national.
He may be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail and $250,000 in fines if found guilty on all counts.
Local media said that a lawyer representing Mr. Ding could not be reached for comment on the matter.
The information he is accused of taking relates to the infrastructure of Google’s supercomputing data centres, which are used to host and train large AI models.
The indictment states that Mr. Ding was employed by Google in 2019 and that one of his duties was creating this program.
In May 2022, he allegedly started uploading data from Google’s network to a personal Google account. The indictment states that these uploads persisted on a sporadic basis for a whole year.
He reportedly worked for Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Technology, a start-up tech company, for several months in China at this time. He was allegedly given $14,800 (£11,620) a month to serve as the company’s Chief Technology Officer, according to the indictment.
Additionally, he is said to have founded and appointed himself CEO of Shanghai Zhisuan Technology, a software company focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Rongshu has been contacted by the BBC; Zhisuan was not immediately available for comment.
Prosecutors claim that Mr. Ding never disclosed to Google that he was employed by either company.
According to the accusation, he sent an application to a Chinese organization seeking assistance in growing this firm, and in November 2023 he presented it at a meeting for investors in China.
The next month, Google saw that he was attempting to transfer additional data to his personal computer while in China. However, Mr. Ding explained to Google’s investigator that he was doing this in order to validate his employment with the company.
Before quitting on December 26, Mr. Ding is alleged to have purchased a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Beijing after he got back to the US and without telling Google about it.
After learning about his conduct at the conference, Google grew suspicious a few days later and suspended his access. They then looked through his activity history to find the unauthorized uploads.
A representative for Google, José Castañeda, stated that the business has “strict safeguards to prevent the theft of our confidential commercial information and trade secrets,” and that when it discovered any indication of purported misconduct, it promptly notified the authorities.
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Linwei Ding was working clandestinely for businesses that were “seeking an edge in the AI technology race” in order to benefit himself, according to a statement released by US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate the theft of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies that could put our national security at risk,” Mr. Garland stated.
According to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Mr. Ding’s purported activities “are the latest illustration of the lengths” Chinese businesses will go to in order “to steal American innovation”.
In recent years, there has been a fierce trade war between the US and China as both countries try to outcompete each other.
Due to the conflict, both nations have imposed duties on items worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Under the Biden administration, trade ties have deteriorated as a result of additional trade restrictions, such as limitations on the export of computer chips.
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