Former Google software engineer Linwei Ding has been charged with stealing AI-related trade secrets to benefit two Chinese companies. He could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each crime. Reuters reports: Ding's indictment alleges that the Biden administration created an interagency disruptive technology strike force to prevent countries such as China and Russia from acquiring advanced technologies or that could threaten national security. It was published over a year later. “The Department of Justice will never tolerate the theft of trade secrets or information,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference in San Francisco.
According to the indictment, Ding stole details about the hardware infrastructure and software platforms that enable Google's supercomputing data centers to train large-scale AI models through machine learning. The indictment says the information stolen included details about the chips, systems and software that powers the supercomputer “capable of running on the cutting edge of machine learning and AI technology.” Google designed some of the allegedly stolen chip blueprints to gain an advantage over cloud computing rivals Amazon.com and Microsoft.
Ding, who was hired by Google in 2019, began stealing three years later, while he was being courted to become chief technology officer at the early-stage Chinese tech company, and by May 2023 had racked up 500 thefts. He is said to have uploaded the above confidential files. According to the indictment, Ding founded his own technology company the same month and said, “We have experience with Google's 10,000-card computing power platform. We just replicate and upgrade it.” He reportedly distributed a document to the chat group. Google became suspicious of Ding in December 2023 and took away his laptop on January 4, 2024, the day before he planned to resign. A Google spokesperson said: “We have strict safeguards in place to prevent the theft of commercially sensitive information and trade secrets. After an investigation, we discovered that this employee had stolen numerous documents and we immediately took action. We have reported the matter to law enforcement.”