Former Google software engineer convicted of AI – Business News
A federal jury in San Francisco discovered a former Google software engineer guilty of espionage and theft of commerce secrets and techniques within the first-ever espionage conviction associated to AI.
Following an 11-day trial, the jury on Thursday discovered Linwei Ding, also called Leon Ding, guilty on seven counts of financial espionage and 7 counts of theft of commerce secrets and techniques – together with hundreds of pages of Google commerce secrets and techniques that have been stolen to help China.
“In today’s high-stakes race to dominate the field of artificial intelligence, Linwei Ding betrayed both the US and his employer by stealing trade secrets about Google’s AI technology on behalf of China’s government,” Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI’s espionage unit, mentioned in a Friday assertion.
A federal jury in San Francisco Thursday discovered a former Google software engineer guilty of espionage and theft of commerce secrets and techniques. REUTERS
US tech companies have been in a fierce race to ship probably the most superior AI fashions – particularly after China’s DeepSeek shocked markets in January 2025 with the release of AI chips developed at simply a fraction of the price of US rivals.
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis lately warned that China’s AI fashions may be simply “a matter of months” behind American counterparts.
From May 2022 by April 2023, Ding, 38, stole more than two thousand pages of confidential company info containing Google’s AI secrets and techniques and uploaded them to his personal Google Cloud account, the Justice Department mentioned Friday.
Ding – who was indicted in March 2024 – additionally secretly affiliated himself with two Chinese tech companies whereas he was working at Google, in response to the DOJ.
He was in talks to function a chief technology officer for a tech firm primarily based in China, and within the course of of founding his own China-based startup.
The jury discovered Leon Ding, 38, guilty on seven counts of financial espionage and 7 counts of theft of commerce secrets and techniques. Linkedin
In a number of statements to potential buyers, Ding claimed he may construct an AI supercomputer utilizing the commerce secrets and techniques he stole from Google, in response to the Justice Department.
In December 2023, much less than two weeks earlier than he left the tech giant, he downloaded the stolen paperwork onto his personal laptop, in response to courtroom paperwork.
The stolen docs contained detailed details about Google’s Tensor Processing Unit chips and its custom-built SmartNIC, a community interface card – info that may very well be used to coach giant AI fashions, the DOJ mentioned.
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This case of espionage and theft concerned “some of the most advanced AI technology in the world at a critical moment in AI development,” mentioned Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg.
Ding faces a most sentence of 10 years in jail for every depend of theft and 15 years in jail for every depend of financial espionage.
His lawyer Grant Fondo argued that the paperwork couldn’t have contained worthwhile commerce secrets and techniques as a result of Google didn’t do enough to guard the data.
“Google chose openness over security,” Fondo informed the jury in closing arguments, in response to Courthouse News Service. “They did not take reasonable measures.”
