Justice Division officers known as the case a sign that the U.S. authorities will stay vigilant in opposition to makes an attempt to illicitly switch superior U.S. applied sciences to China, amid a Chilly Battle-esque technological arms race between Washington and Beijing.
“The Justice Division won’t tolerate the theft of synthetic intelligence and different superior applied sciences that might put our nationwide safety in danger,” Legal professional Common Merrick Garland mentioned in a press release.
If convicted, Ding faces a most penalty of 10 years in jail and as much as $1 million in fines.
In accordance with an indictment filed March 5 in a court docket in San Francisco, Ding was employed by Google as a software program engineer in 2019 and labored on the corporate’s supercomputing knowledge facilities. He labored on growing software program that aided the operation of machine studying and AI purposes for Google’s shoppers, the indictment mentioned.
Prosecutors mentioned that Ding started importing confidential Google info to a private Google Cloud account in Might 2022 and had uploaded greater than 500 information containing Google confidential info by Might 2023.
The commerce secret theft counts contain chip structure and software program design specs for “tensor processing models” and “graphics processing models,” chips which are the constructing blocks of supercomputing facilities.
Whereas nonetheless employed at Google, Ding turned the chief expertise officer of a China-based AI firm, Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Expertise Co., and based a second China-based firm, Shanghai Zhisuan Expertise Co., with out informing Google of his positions at both firm, the indictment mentioned.
The FBI searched Ding’s residence on Jan. 6, seizing his digital units and different proof.
“Let right now’s announcement function additional warning — those that would switch delicate U.S. expertise to China threat discovering themselves on the flawed finish of a legal indictment,” mentioned Assistant Secretary Matthew Axelrod, of the Commerce Division’s Workplace for Export Enforcement, in a press release.
The Justice Division mentioned the investigation into Ding was carried out by the Justice and Commerce Departments’ Disruptive Expertise Strike Drive, a year-old group geared toward securing U.S. applied sciences from being acquired by “authoritarian regimes and hostile nation-states.”
Each the U.S. and Chinese language governments have recognized synthetic intelligence as a strategic rising expertise with broad potential to spice up financial output in civilian sectors, whereas additionally offering key capabilities for militaries and intelligence companies. President Biden issued an AI govt order final yr geared toward preserving the U.S. forward in AI in opposition to international locations like China.
Ding, Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Expertise and Shanghai Zhisuan Expertise couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda mentioned Google had referred the case to federal officers. “We’ve got strict safeguards to forestall the theft of our confidential industrial info and commerce secrets and techniques. After an investigation, we discovered that this worker stole quite a few paperwork, and we shortly referred the case to legislation enforcement,” he mentioned.
