Justice Department 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 Cold War-like technological arms race between Washington and Beijing.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate the theft of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies that could put our national security at risk,” U.S. Attorney General 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.
According to an indictment filed Tuesday 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 functions for Google’s shoppers, the indictment mentioned.
Prosecutors mentioned Ding started importing confidential Google data to a private Google Cloud account in May 2022 and had uploaded greater than 500 information by May 2023.
The commerce secret theft counts contain chip structure and software program design specs for “tensor processing units” and “graphics processing units,” chips which can 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, and based a second China-based firm, Shanghai Zhisuan Technology, with out informing Google, the indictment mentioned.
The FBI searched Ding’s residence Jan. 6, seizing his digital gadgets and different proof.
“Let today’s announcement serve as further warning: Those who would transfer sensitive U.S. technology to China risk finding themselves on the wrong end of a criminal indictment,” Assistant Secretary Matthew Axelrod of the Commerce Department’s Office for Export Enforcement mentioned in a press release.
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 offering key capabilities for militaries and intelligence companies. President Biden issued an AI government order final 12 months geared toward conserving the United States forward of nations like China in AI improvement.
Ding, Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Technology and Shanghai Zhisuan Technology couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda mentioned the corporate had referred the case to federal officers. “We have strict safeguards to prevent the theft of our confidential commercial information and trade secrets. After an investigation, we found that this employee stole numerous documents, and we quickly referred the case to law enforcement,” he mentioned.
Gerrit De Vynck contributed to this report.