Ex-Google Employee Caught Stealing AI Tech to Chinese Company

A former Google software engineer of Chinese nationality has been charged with stealing the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) trade secrets and leaking them to a Chinese company. Notably, as the AI technology competition between the U.S. and China intensifies, technology leaks are becoming more frequent.

According to AP and Reuters, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on the 6th that it had arrested and charged former Google engineer Linwei Ding (38) for leaking Google’s AI technology trade secrets to a Chinese company. If convicted, Ding could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $1 million, according to The Washington Post.

Google had previously discovered Ding’s suspicious activities at the end of last year, and this fact came to light when they seized his laptop on January 4, the day before he resigned. Upon receiving the report, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) searched his residence on January 6 and seized additional electronic devices and evidence.

According to the indictment, Ding, hired by Google in 2019, soon had access to confidential information about Google’s supercomputing data centers. From May 2022, he uploaded hundreds of files to his Google Cloud account. These included information about the software platform for training large AI models through machine learning and the hardware infrastructure.

A few weeks after he began stealing technology, Ding was offered a position as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at a tech company in China, along with a monthly salary of $14,800, an annual bonus, and the company stock. He went to China to attend investor meetings for this company and initiated fundraising. He established his own China-based startup and took on the CEO role. However, he did not inform Google of this. He is currently facing four charges, including the leak of trade secrets.

In a statement released today, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “The defendant is accused of secretly working for two Chinese companies and stealing AI technology trade secrets from Google,” and emphasized, “We will fiercely protect sensitive technology developed in the U.S. from falling into the hands of those who should not have it.”