Former Google engineer convicted of selling AI trade secrets

 A former Google engineer was convicted Thursday of stealing AI-related trade secrets from the tech giant for Chinese companies, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of California.

Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, was found guilty of seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of thefts of trade secrets, after stealing more than 2,000 pages of confidential information from Google.

While he was working at Google, Ding was also affiliated with two Chinese companies, the U.S. attorney’s office said. He was in discussions to become chief technology officer of one and was in the process of founding another where he was serving as acting CEO.

The 38-year-old downloaded the tranche of documents — featuring information about Google’s chips and the software used to connect them into a supercomputer — to his personal computer less than two weeks before he resigned. He told potential investors that he could build an AI supercomputer using Google’s technology.

“Silicon Valley is at the forefront of artificial intelligence innovation, pioneering transformative work that drives economic growth and strengthens our national security,” U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian said in a statement.

“The jury delivered a clear message today that the theft of this valuable technology will not go unpunished,” he continued. “We will vigorously protect American intellectual capital from foreign interests that seek to gain an unfair competitive advantage while putting our national security at risk.”

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5715704-linwei-ding-ai-theft-google/