Justice Department officers known as the case a sign that the U.S. authorities will stay vigilant towards makes an attempt to illicitly switch superior U.S. applied sciences to China, amid a Cold War-like technological arms race between Washington and Beijing.
“The Justice Department won’t tolerate the theft of synthetic intelligence and different superior applied sciences that would put our nationwide safety in danger,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland mentioned in an announcement.
If convicted, Ding faces a most penalty of 10 years in jail and as much as $1 million in fines.
According to an indictment filed March 5 in federal 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 creating software program that helped the operation of machine studying and AI purposes for Google’s purchasers, the indictment mentioned.
Prosecutors mentioned that Ding started importing confidential Google info to a private Google Cloud account in May 2022 and had uploaded greater than 500 recordsdata containing Google confidential info by May 2023.
The trade secret theft counts contain chip structure and software program design specs for “tensor processing items” and “graphics processing items,” chips which might be the constructing blocks of supercomputing facilities.
While nonetheless employed at Google, Ding grew to become the chief expertise officer of a China-based AI firm, Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Technology Co., and based a second China-based firm, Shanghai Zhisuan Technology 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 at this time’s announcement function additional warning: Those who would switch delicate U.S. expertise to China threat discovering themselves on the fallacious finish of a felony indictment,” Assistant Secretary Matthew Axelrod of the Commerce Department’s Office for Export Enforcement mentioned in an announcement.
The Justice Department mentioned the investigation into Ding was carried out by the Justice and Commerce Departments’ Disruptive Technology Strike Force, a year-old group geared toward securing U.S. applied sciences from being acquired by “authoritarian regimes and hostile nation-states.”
Both the U.S. and Chinese governments view 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 businesses. President Biden issued an AI government order final yr geared toward maintaining the United States forward of nations like China in AI growth.
Ding, Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Technology and Shanghai Zhisuan Technology couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda mentioned Google had referred the case to federal officers. “We have strict safeguards to stop the theft of our confidential industrial info and trade secrets and techniques. After an investigation, we discovered that this worker stole quite a few paperwork, and we shortly referred the case to regulation enforcement,” he mentioned.
