U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday that a Chinese National residing in California has been charged with four counts of theft of trade secrets in connection to an alleged plot to steal artificial intelligence (AI) technology from Google LLC (Google).
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According to the indictment, Linwei Ding, aka Leon Ding, 38, of the People’s Republic of China, transferred Google trade secrets and other confidential information from Google’s network to his personal account while working at the company as a software engineer.
Federal prosecutors allege that while Ding was employed at Google, he secretly affiliated himself with several China-based technology companies, and even founded his own AI machine learning startup company, touting his experience at Google to potential investors in Beijing.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate the theft of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies that could put our national security at risk,” said Attorney General Garland.
“In this case, we allege the defendant stole artificial intelligence-related trade secrets from Google while secretly working for two companies based in China,” Garland said. “We will fiercely protect sensitive technologies developed in America from falling into the hands of those who should not have them.”
According to court documents, the technology Ding allegedly stole relates to Google’s supercomputing data centers, which support their machine learning workloads and large AI models — such as advanced language models capable of generating responses to prompts, tasks, or queries.
Federal prosecutors say Ding was hired by Google as a software engineer in 2019, with responsibilities including developing the software used in Google’s supercomputing data centers.
The indictment alleges that beginning in May 2021, Ding began to secretly upload trade secrets stored in Google’s network by copying the information to his personal Google Cloud account, allegedly uploading more than 500 unique files by May 2023.
During that time, according to the indictment, Ding secretly affiliated himself with two technology companies based in the People’s Republic of China, exchanging emails with executives of China-based companies and even traveling to China in October 2022 to meet with investors.
In May 2023, prosecutors allege Ding founded his own AI technology company, and travelled to Beijing in November 2023 to present his company to investors at a conference in Beijing.
According to the indictment, a document related to Ding’s startup company stated “we have experience with Google’s ten-thousand-card computational power platform; we just need to replicate and upgrade it – and then further develop a computational power platform suited to China’s national conditions.”
Ding is charged with four counts of theft of trade secrets. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine for each count.
“Today’s charges are the latest illustration of the lengths affiliates of companies based in the People’s Republic of China are willing to go to steal American innovation,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday.
“The theft of innovative technology and trade secrets from American companies can cost jobs and have devastating economic and national security consequences,” Wray said. “The FBI will continue its efforts to vigorously pursue those responsible for stealing U.S. companies’ intellectual property and most closely guarded secrets.”
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="26344 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=26344">2 Comments
They will want to return it. The Bud Light of AI.
Didn’t google steal their algorithm?