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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, bphomesteading.com likewise referred to as Leon Ding, 38, with 7 counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets in connection with an alleged plan to steal from Google LLC (Google) exclusive details connected to AI technology.

Ding was at first arraigned in March 2024 on four counts of theft of trade secrets. The superseding indictment returned today explains 7 classifications of trade tricks stolen by Ding and charges Ding with 7 counts of financial espionage and seven counts of theft of trade tricks.

According to the superseding indictment, Google worked with Ding as a software engineer in 2019. Between around 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 utilized by Google, he secretly associated himself with 2 People's Republic of China (PRC)- based technology companies. Around June 2022, Ding remained in discussions to be the Chief Technology Officer for an early-stage technology company based in the PRC. By May 2023, Ding had actually founded his own technology business concentrated on AI and artificial intelligence in the PRC and was acting as the business's CEO.

The superseding indictment declares that Ding intended to benefit the PRC government by taking trade secrets from Google. Ding supposedly stole innovation relating to the hardware facilities and software platform that allows Google's supercomputing data center to train and serve big AI designs. The trade secrets contain detailed details about the architecture and performance of Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chips and systems and Google's Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) systems, the software that allows the chips to communicate and execute jobs, and the software that manages countless chips into a supercomputer capable of training and executing advanced AI work. The trade tricks likewise pertain to Google's custom-made SmartNIC, a type of network user interface card utilized to boost Google's GPU, high performance, and cloud networking products.

As declared, Ding flowed a PowerPoint discussion to employees of his innovation business citing PRC nationwide policies motivating the development of the domestic AI industry. He also developed a PowerPoint presentation containing an application to a PRC skill program based in Shanghai. The superseding indictment explains how PRC-sponsored skill programs incentivize individuals participated in research and development outside the PRC to transmit that knowledge and research study to the PRC in exchange for incomes, research study funds, laboratory area, or other rewards. Ding's application for the talent program stated that his company's product "will help China to have calculating power facilities capabilities that are on par with the worldwide level."

If founded guilty, Ding faces an optimum penalty of ten years in jail and up to a $250,000 fine for each trade-secret count and 15 years in jail and $5,000,000 fine for each economic-espionage count. A federal district court judge will identify any sentence after considering 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.

was collaborated through the Justice and Commerce Departments' Disruptive Technology Strike Force. The Disruptive Technology Strike Force is an interagency law enforcement strike force co-led by the Departments of Justice and Commerce designed to target illegal stars, protect supply chains, and avoid vital technology from being obtained by authoritarian routines and hostile nation-states.

A superseding indictment is merely a claims. All defendants are presumed innocent till tested guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.