An ex-Google software engineer was charged with stealing AI trade secrets from the company to pass on to two Chinese companies, the US Department of Justice said Wednesday.

The former Google employee was identified as Linwei Ding, a 38-year-old Chinese national. He was arrested in Newark, California, and now faces four counts of federal trade secret theft. Authorities said each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, with a $250,000 fine. 

Ex-Google Software Engineer Accused of Stealing AI Trade Secrets From Company

According to the Associated Press, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the case of the ex-Google software engineer at an American Bar Association Conference in San Francisco as he and other law enforcement leaders warned about the threat of Chinese economic espionage.

They also warned about the national security concerns posed by AI advancements and other developing technologies.

"As with all evolving technologies, (AI) has pluses and minuses, advantages and disadvantages, great promise and the risk of great harm," Garland noted, according to AP.

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Stolen Data From Google

The Verge reported that most of the stolen data revolves around Google's tensor processing unit (TPU) chips, which power many of the company's AI workloads. These chips, working in conjunction with Nvidia GPUs, can train and run AI models, such as Gemini. 

Among the allegedly stolen files were the hardware and software specifications for GPUs used in Google's data center, as well as the software designs for the v4 and v6 TPU chips and for Google's machine learning workloads in data.

Ding got access to confidential information about Google's supercomputing data centers after he was hired by the company in 2019. He reportedly started uploading hundreds of files into a personal Google Cloud account two years ago.

Less than a month after he started stealing files, prosecutors said a Chinese machine-learning firm named Rongshu offered to make him CTO, and he subsequently founded and led a machine-learning startup called Zhisuan - all while still working for Google.

Ding resigned from the company last December 26, and Google eventually discovered his unauthorized uploads while looking into his network activity history.

The FBI reportedly found over 500 unique files of confidential information he allegedly stole from Google in his electronic devices that authorities confiscated from his home in January.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement: "Today's charges are the latest illustration of the lengths affiliates of companies based in the People's Republic of China are willing to go to steal American innovation."

He added that the "theft of innovative technology and trade secrets from American companies can cost jobs and have devastating economic and national security consequences."

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