Ex-Google engineer convicted of stealing AI trade secrets to benefit China

A erstwhile bundle technologist astatine Google has been convicted of stealing artificial quality commercialized secrets for the payment of China, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

A national assemblage connected Thursday convicted Linwei Ding, 38, of 7 counts of economical espionage and 7 counts of theft of commercialized secrets aft an 11-day proceedings successful the U.S. District Court successful the Northern District of California.

The verdict marked the Justice Department’s archetypal condemnation connected AI-related economical espionage charges, according to a connection from Roman Rozhavsky, adjunct manager of the FBI’s counterintelligence and espionage division.

Ding’s lawyer did not respond to an email seeking remark Friday.

Ding stole much than 2,000 pages of confidential accusation containing Google’s AI commercialized secrets from the company’s web and uploaded them to his idiosyncratic Google unreality relationship betwixt May 2022 and April 2023, according to grounds presented astatine trial.

At the aforesaid time, helium secretly worked with 2 Beijing-based exertion companies, staging discussions with 1 early-stage institution to beryllium its main exertion officer, and aboriginal acting arsenic laminitis and main enforcement of a 2nd startup, prosecutors said. He told imaginable investors that helium could physique an AI supercomputer by copying Google’s technology, tribunal documents state.

Ding downloaded the commercialized secrets to his idiosyncratic machine little than 2 weeks earlier helium resigned from Google successful December 2023, prosecutors said. He besides applied for what prosecutors described arsenic a Chinese government-sponsored “talent plan” intended to pull radical to lend to the country’s economical and technological growth.

His exertion stated that helium planned to “help China to person computing powerfulness infrastructure capabilities that are connected par with the planetary level,” prosecutors said.

“This condemnation reinforces the FBI’s steadfast committedness to protecting American innovation and nationalist security,” FBI Special Agent successful Charge Sanjay Virmani said successful a statement.

“The theft and misuse of precocious artificial quality technology” to payment China, Virmani added, “threatens our technological borderline and economical competitiveness.”

Ding faces a maximum imaginable condemnation of 10 years successful situation for each number of theft of commercialized secrets and 15 years successful situation for each number of economical espionage. He’s adjacent owed successful tribunal Tuesday for a presumption conference.

“We’re grateful to the assemblage for making definite justness was served today, sending a wide connection that stealing commercialized secrets has superior consequences.” Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of regulatory affairs for Google, said successful a statement.