A federal jury in San Francisco has convicted a former Google engineer of stealing confidential AI infrastructure data and transferring it to benefit Chinese interests, closing one of the highest-profile trade secret cases to date involving AI systems.
The defendant, Linwei Ding, was found guilty on 14 counts, including economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, following a trial concerning his conduct while employed at Google between May 2022 and April 2023. According to prosecutors, Ding copied internal technical documents while also pursuing roles and venture funding connected to Chinese companies and his own start-up, Rongshu.
