Ex-Google engineer charged with stealing AI trade secrets while working with Chinese companies

WASHINGTON — A former software engineer at Google has been charged with stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets from the company while secretly working with two companies based in China, the Justice Department said Wednesday. “The theft of innovative technology and trade secrets from American companies can cost jobs and have devastating economic and national security consequences.” Google said it had determined that the employee had stolen “numerous documents” and referred the matter to law enforcement. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a speech last month that the administration’s multi-agency Disruptive Technology Strike Force would place AI at the top of its enforcement priority list, and Wray told a conference last week that AI and other emerging technologies had made it easier for adversaries to try to interfere with the American political process. Garland echoed those concerns at the San Francisco event, saying Wednesday that, “As with all evolving technologies, has pluses and minuses, advantages and disadvantages, great promise and the risk of great harm.” The indictment unsealed Wednesday in the Northern District of California alleges that Ding, who was hired by Google in 2019 and had access to confidential information about the company’s supercomputing data centers, began uploading hundreds of files into a personal Google Cloud account two years ago.