A software engineer named Leon Ding who once worked at Google was recently found guilty by a federal jury in San Francisco, USA, for stealing a large number of highly confidential artificial intelligence trade secrets to help two Chinese technology companies with which he secretly cooperated. The 38-year-old Chinese engineer was found guilty of seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of trade secret theft. The case lasted 11 days and was accused of constituting serious breach of trust.
Under current sentencing standards, he faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and a $5 million fine for each count of economic espionage, and a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of trade secret theft.
Case materials show that Ding Linwei joined Google in 2019 and worked for the company's artificial intelligence supercomputing team. He was responsible for the basic software platform and hardware infrastructure that supports large-scale AI model training. This area is regarded as one of Google's most sensitive core technologies. Prosecutors believe that he began to systematically steal internal information in May 2022, and until April 2023, he had maintained close contacts with two Chinese competitors. During this period, on the one hand, he negotiated with a start-up company to serve as chief technology officer, and on the other hand, he co-founded "Shanghai Zhisuan Technology Co., Ltd." in China and claimed to potential investors that the company had the ability to replicate Google's powerful AI supercomputing architecture.
The indictment alleges that Ding Linwei transferred internal Google files in a variety of ways, including uploading thousands of files to his personal Google Cloud account and copying some of the content into his own Apple Notes app. These stolen documents involve sensitive design details and technical blueprints of Google's proprietary technologies, including Google's self-developed machine learning chip - Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) and related graphics processing unit (GPU) architecture and other information.
The report pointed out that the case is also reminiscent of a lawsuit filed by Apple a few months ago. Apple sued former employee Chen Shi and his new employer, the Chinese company OPPO and its U.S. research and development organization InnoPeak Technology, accusing Chen of downloading 63 sensitive files related to Apple Watch and its health sensors before leaving. Apple said that Chen lied to his colleagues that he had returned to China to take care of his elderly parents and had not yet found a new job, but in fact he had joined a new competitive position.
In recent years, the United States has frequently filed similar lawsuits against former employees of large technology companies, highlighting the increasingly fierce competition between companies and countries surrounding trade secrets and technological advantages in the fields of artificial intelligence and high-end hardware.
Press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-google-engineer-found-guilty-economic-espionage-and-theft-confidential-ai