Former Google software engineer charged with stealing AI technology while collaborating with Chinese company

WASHINGTON (AP) – A former Google software engineer has been charged with secretly collaborating with two China-based companies to steal artificial intelligence technology from the company, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Linwei Ding, a Chinese national, was arrested in Newark, California on four counts of theft of federal trade secrets, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The lawsuit against Ding was announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland at an American Bar Association conference in San Francisco. Attorney General Garland, along with other law enforcement leaders, has repeatedly warned of the national security concerns posed by the threat of Chinese economic espionage and advances in artificial intelligence. Intelligence.

“Today's charges are the latest example of the extent to which affiliates of companies based in the People's Republic of China are willing to steal American innovation,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “The theft of innovative technology and trade secrets from U.S. companies can result in job losses and devastating economic and national security effects.”

Justice Department leaders have sounded the alarm in recent weeks about the potential for foreign adversaries to use AI technology to harm the United States.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a speech last month that the administration's multi-agency disruptive technology strike force would put AI enforcement at the top of its priority list, and Wray told business leaders at an event last week: AI and other emerging technologies have made it easier for adversaries to interfere in America's political process.

According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in the Northern District of California, Ding, who was hired by Google in 2019 and had access to sensitive information about the company's supercomputing data centers, had been using his personal Google Cloud account for two years. He started uploading hundreds of files to the site.

Within weeks of the theft, prosecutors said, Ding was offered a chief technology officer position at an early-stage Chinese technology company touting its use of AI technology. According to the indictment, Ding traveled to China to attend the company's investor conference and try to raise funds.

Separately, he founded and served as chief executive officer of a China-based startup that aimed to train “large-scale AI models using supercomputing chips,” the indictment says. Are listed.

Prosecutors allege that Ding did not disclose either relationship to Google.

He resigned from the company on December 26th. Three days later, Google officials learned that he had appeared at an investor conference in Beijing as the CEO of a Chinese company. Authorities also learned that another employee scanned Ding's access badge in the building where he worked to make it appear as though he was there while he was actually in China. The indictment says the company investigated the surveillance results.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Ding, 38, had a lawyer who could argue on his behalf.