Ex-Google employee accused of obtaining trade secrets in artificial intelligence while employed by Chinese businesses

The Justice Department said on Wednesday that a former Google software engineer has been accused of surreptitiously working with two Chinese businesses while taking trade secrets related to artificial intelligence from the company.

Chinese citizen Linwei Ding was taken into custody in Newark, California, on four charges of stealing federal trade secrets, each of which carries a maximum 10-year jail sentence.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has frequently warned about the threat of Chinese economic espionage and the national security concerns posed by advancements in artificial intelligence and other developing technologies, announced the case against Ding, 38, at an American Bar Association conference in San Francisco.

FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in a statement, “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.” “It can cost jobs and have devastating economic and national security consequences when innovative technology and trade secrets are stolen from American companies.”

Google reported the incident to law police after determining that the employee had taken “numberous documents.”

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement, “We have strict safeguards to prevent the theft of our confidential commercial information and trade secrets.” Following an examination, we discovered that this employee had stolen many papers. We promptly reported this to legal authorities. We appreciate the FBI’s assistance in protecting our data, and we’ll keep working closely with them.

On Wednesday night, a defense counsel identified as Ding’s representative remained silent.

The primary arena of competition for high-tech companies is artificial intelligence, and the outcome of this competition may have significant financial and security ramifications. Leaders in the Justice Department have expressed concern in recent weeks about foreign enemies’ potential to use AI technology to harm the United States.

In a speech last month, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco declared that artificial intelligence (AI) would rank first on the administration’s multi-agency Disruptive Technology Strike Force’s enforcement priority list. Last week, Wray addressed a conference, saying that AI and other emerging technologies had made it simpler for enemies to attempt to meddle in American politics.

“As with all evolving technologies, (AI) has pluses and minuses, advantages and disadvantages, great promise and the risk of great harm,” said Garland on Wednesday, echoing same worries at the San Francisco gathering.

After being hired by Google in 2019 and given access to sensitive information about the company’s supercomputing data centers, the indictment, which was unsealed on Wednesday in the Northern District of California, claims that Ding started uploading hundreds of files into a personal Google Cloud account two years ago.

Prosecutors claim that within weeks of the theft beginning, Ding received an offer to become chief technology officer of an early-stage Chinese technology business that highlighted its use of artificial intelligence (AI) and promised him a salary of around $14,800 per month along with an annual bonus and company shares. According to the accusation, Ding went to China, attended investor meetings at the business, and attempted to obtain money for it.

In addition, the indictment said that he formed and led a startup firm in China with the goal of training “large AI models powered by supercomputing chips.”

According to the prosecution, Ding did not reveal his connection to Google, which on Wednesday identified him as a junior employee.

He left Google on December 26 of last year.

Officials at Google discovered three days later that he had given a presentation at a Beijing investment conference in his capacity as the CEO of one of the Chinese firms. Authorities also watched security tape that demonstrated how, according to the indictment, Ding’s access badge at the Google office in the United States had been scanned by another employee, giving the impression that Ding was there while, in fact, he was in China.

Google locked Ding’s laptop and blocked his network access; when looking through his network activity history, they found his illegal uploads.

The FBI obtained Ding’s electronic devices via a search warrant that was issued on his house in January. They also obtained the contents of Ding’s personal accounts, which included over 500 distinct files of private information that they claim he took from Google.