A federal jury has convicted a 39-year-old Chinese national and former Google software engineer of stealing trade secrets related to AI technology from his former employer on behalf of the People’s Republic of China, Justice Department officials said.
Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, was convicted on Thursday of seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets. The economic espionage counts carry prison sentences of up to 15 years, while the theft of trade secrets carry prison terms of no more than 10 years.
Ding started working at Google in 2019 and was tasked with developing the software deployed in its supercomputer data centers, according to DOJ documents. In 2022, prosecutors alleged, he began secretly uploading trade secrets from the Google network to a personal Google Cloud account, amassing hundreds of files over the next year, downloading them to his PC shortly before resigning from the Mountain View company in December 2023.
At the same time, he started working with a Chinese startup in 2022 and launched his own tech company focused on AI and machine learning the following year. When he was indicted, prosecutors accused him of receiving $14,800 a month from the company.
Ding told investors he could copy Google’s technology and use it to build an AI supercomputer, and applied for a government-sponsored “talent plan” in Shanghai in 2023, the DOJ news report said. In his filing, he pledged to help China build AI capabilities “on par with the international level,” prosecutors said.
“The Department of Justice will not tolerate the theft of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies that could endanger our national security,” then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said in 2024, when Ding was first charged.
The belief comes amid an explosion of investment in artificial intelligence and machine learning, which experts say have become key drivers of recent U.S. economic growth.
The jury’s conviction today sent a “clear message that the theft of this valuable technology will not go unpunished,” U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian said in a statement.
This article was originally published on Ex-Google engineer convicted of stealing AI trade secrets for China.
