US DoJ Arrests Former Google Engineer for AI Tech Theft

As reported by The Hacker News, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has indicted a Chinese national and resident of California. The 38-year-old’s charge? Allegedly stealing AI trade secrets from Google while secretly employed at two different Chinese-based tech companies.

The DoJ says Linwei Ding (who also goes by Leon Ding) stole over 500 confidential files from Google surrounding the company’s AI technology, with the goal of sharing this data with the two unnamed companies. One of these companies offered Ding the role of chief technology officer, while the other was founded by Ding himself. These companies wanted to use this technology to get a leg-up in the so-called “AI race,” in an attempt to compete with companies like Google who are already far ahead of the competition.

Specifically, Ding is accused of stealing private data surrounding Google’s supercomputing data center, which the company uses for running AI models; the CMS (cluster management system) Google uses to manage this data, and the AI models and apps this infrastructure supports. Likely, that includes Gemini, Google’s three-tiered large language model (LLM), used to power everything from developer applications to the AI features on Google’s Pixel smartphone line.

According to the DoJ, Ding was able to get away with his thievery for nearly a year: From May 21, 2022 through May 2, 2023, Ding moved this data to his personal Google Cloud account. Ding had already moved to China by December 2023, but allowed another employee to use his badge to swipe into the building, which gave the impression Ding was still working in the US during this time.

Ding faces four counts of theft and trade secrets, which would come with up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines for each count, if convicted.

If nothing else, this story highlights the ever-increasing tensions in the AI race: Companies are desperate to compete with one another, as AI technology improves at an astonishing rate. Expect to see more covert operations and shady behavior in this space.