Superseding Indictment Charges Chinese National in Relation to Alleged Plan to Steal Proprietary AI Technology
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Superseding Indictment Charges Chinese National In Relation To Alleged Plan To Steal Proprietary AI Technology
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Superseding Indictment Charges Chinese National in Relation to Alleged Plan to Steal Proprietary AI Technology
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Note: View the superseding indictment here.
A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment today charging Linwei Ding, likewise called Leon Ding, 38, with 7 counts of financial espionage and seven counts of theft of trade tricks in connection with a supposed plan to take from Google LLC (Google) exclusive details connected to AI innovation.
Ding was initially arraigned in March 2024 on 4 counts of theft of trade secrets. The superseding indictment returned today explains 7 categories of trade tricks stolen by Ding and charges Ding with seven counts of economic espionage and 7 counts of theft of trade tricks.
According to the superseding indictment, Google worked with Ding as a software application engineer in 2019. Between approximately May 2022 and May 2023, Ding uploaded more than 1,000 unique files containing Google private details from Google's network to his personal Google Cloud account, consisting of the trade tricks declared in the superseding indictment.
While Ding was employed by Google, he covertly connected himself with two People's Republic of China (PRC)- based innovation business. Around June 2022, Ding remained in discussions to be the Chief Technology Officer for an early-stage innovation business based in the PRC. By May 2023, Ding had actually established his own technology business focused on AI and artificial intelligence in the PRC and was acting as the business's CEO.
The superseding indictment declares that Ding planned to benefit the PRC federal government by stealing trade tricks from Google. Ding apparently took technology connecting to the hardware infrastructure and software application platform that enables Google's supercomputing information center to train and serve large AI models. The trade tricks contain detailed details about the architecture and functionality of Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chips and systems and Google's Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) systems, the software that enables the chips to communicate and carry out tasks, and the software application that orchestrates countless chips into a supercomputer capable of training and performing cutting-edge AI workloads. The trade secrets also pertain to Google's custom-designed SmartNIC, a kind of network user interface card utilized to improve Google's GPU, high performance, oke.zone and cloud networking items.
As alleged, Ding circulated a PowerPoint presentation to employees of his innovation company mentioning PRC national policies motivating the advancement of the domestic AI market. He also produced a PowerPoint presentation containing an application to a PRC talent program based in Shanghai. The superseding indictment explains how PRC-sponsored skill programs incentivize people taken part in research and development outside the PRC to transmit that understanding and research to the PRC in exchange for incomes, research funds, lab space, or other incentives. Ding's application for the skill program stated that his company's product "will assist China to have calculating power facilities capabilities that are on par with the international level."
If founded guilty, Ding faces an optimum charge of ten years in jail and as much as a $250,000 fine for each trade-secret count and 15 years in jail and $5,000,000 fine for each . A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after thinking about the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory aspects.
The FBI is investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Casey Boome and Molly K. Priedeman for the Northern District of California and Trial Attorneys Stephen Marzen and Yifei Zheng of the National Security Division's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.
Today's action was coordinated through the Justice and Commerce Departments' Disruptive Technology Strike Force. The Disruptive Technology Strike Force is an interagency police strike force co-led by the Departments of Justice and Commerce designed to target illegal actors, protect supply chains, and avoid important technology from being obtained by authoritarian routines and hostile nation-states.
A superseding indictment is merely a claims. All defendants are presumed innocent until tested guilty beyond a sensible doubt in a court of law.