A former Google engineer was arrested in California on Wednesday for stealing greater than 500 information containing synthetic intelligence commerce secrets and techniques from the corporate and utilizing the data to profit rival tech corporations in China.
In an indictment that was unsealed in a federal California courtroom, prosecutors accused Linwei Ding, a 38-year-old Chinese language nationwide who began working at Google in 2019, of importing commerce secrets and techniques from his Google-issued laptop computer to private cloud storage accounts. The paperwork that Ding stole concerned “constructing blocks” of Google’s AI infrastructure, in response to the indictment. He uploaded them to his private accounts over a interval of 1 yr from Could 2022 to Could 2023.
Ding was arrested in Newark, California, and charged with 4 counts of theft of commerce secrets and techniques. If convicted, he will be sentenced as much as 10 years in jail and a superb of as much as $250,000 for every rely.
“We’ve got strict safeguards to stop the theft of our confidential business info and commerce secrets and techniques,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda informed Engadget. “After an investigation, we discovered that this worker stole quite a few paperwork, and we rapidly referred the case to legislation enforcement. We’re grateful to the FBI for serving to shield our info and can proceed cooperating with them carefully.”
The event comes at a time of heightened tensions between america and China over the explosion of synthetic intelligence. Final yr, the Biden administration banned the export of superior AI chips designed by American corporations like NVIDIA to China to cease the nation from utilizing AI to strengthen its navy. “As we speak’s expenses are the most recent illustration of the lengths associates of corporations primarily based within the Individuals’s Republic of China are wiling to go to steal American innovation,” stated FBI director Christopher Wray in an announcement. “The theft of modern know-how and commerce secrets and techniques from American corporations can value jobs and have devastating financial and nationwide safety penalties.”
The indictment revealed all types of particulars in regards to the nature of the crime. Ding allegedly copied info from Google’s information into Apple Notes on his laptop computer first, after which transformed them to PDF information that he uploaded to his private Google account to evade detection by Google’s knowledge loss prevention techniques. He additionally gave his Google badge to a different Google worker in California to make it seem to be he was working from Google’s places of work within the state whereas really working for rival corporations in China. Prosecutors stated that Ding helped in elevating capital for one of many Chinese language corporations he labored with as its chief know-how officer. Final yr, he additionally based one other AI firm in China and served as its CEO.
This isn’t the primary time that the US has arrested a Chinese language nationwide for stealing commerce secrets and techniques from American corporations. In the previous few years, the US lawyer’s workplace in San Francisco has charged three former Apple workers for stealing commerce secrets and techniques associated to the Apple Automotive, a challenge the corporate not too long ago canceled, and siphoning them off to corporations in China. Final month, a kind of engineers was sentenced to 6 months in jail and requested to pay almost $150,000 in fines.
