U.S. prosecutors released a 14-enlarge charge Tuesday that accused former Google software engineer Linwei ding of stealing artificial intelligence (AI) trade secrets, benefiting two Chinese companies he worked in secret.
Ding, a 38-year-old Chinese national, was charged by a federal grand jury in San Francisco with seven counts of each count of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets.
Each economic espionage fee can accommodate up to 15 years in prison and fines of US$5 million (approximately Rs 43 crore), while each trade secret charge is a maximum of 10 years and US$250,000 (approximately Rs 218 crore) fine .
The defendant, also known as Leon Ding, was charged in March last year for allegedly stealing trade secrets. He has a bond for free. Ding’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ding’s case was coordinated through an inter-agency disruptive technology strike force created by the Biden administration in 2023.
The plan is designed to help prevent advanced technologies from being acquired by countries such as China and Russia, or may threaten national security.
Prosecutors said Ding stole information about the hardware infrastructure and software platform that allowed Google’s supercomputing data center to train large AI models.
Some of the allegedly stolen chip blueprints are designed to give Google an edge over cloud competitors Amazon.com and Microsoft, which designed themselves and reduced Google’s reliance on Nvidia.
Prosecutors said Ding joined Google in May 2019 and started the theft three years later when he was proposed to join an early Chinese technology company.
It is said that by May 2023, Ding uploaded more than 1,000 confidential files and later issued a PowerPoint presentation to employees of the Chinese startup he founded, saying that the country’s policies encouraged the development of the domestic AI industry.
Google has not been charged and said it has cooperated with law enforcement.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys discussed “potential resolution” in the case of Ding, but the matter is expected to be under trial, according to court records describing the December 18 hearing. ”
The case is US District Court, US District Court, North District, California, No. 24-CR-00141.
©Tech Word News
(This story has not been edited by Tech Word News’s staff and is automatically generated from the joint feed.)
