Ex-Google Engineer Indicted for Alleged Theft of AI Secrets for Chinese Firms

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Mar 07, 2024

Image copyright: Carl Court/Getty Images via Getty Imagesstory last updated Jul 03

The Facts

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has unsealed a four-count indictment against a former Google employee, alleging that Linwei (Leon) Ding stole artificial intelligence (AI) trade secrets for the benefit of two Chinese companies.
The indictment claims that, from June 2022, Ding received emails from the CEO of Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Technology offering a monthly salary of approximately $15K, before he founded Shanghai Zhisuan Technology in May 2023. Ding was hired as an AI software engineer by Google in 2019.

The Spin

Anti-China narrative

Chinese tech theft is estimated to cost the US $500B a year, and America continues to allow Beijing to sap cutting-edge information from sectors such as AI with little deterrent. While Washington must continue to attract the world's brightest to work in America, the reality remains that the obligation to commit espionage is a staple of Chinese domestic law, and the current inability to combat this problem must be viewed as a national emergency.

Newsweek

Pro-China narrative

Accusations of Chinese tech developments being the product of espionage and theft are both rooted in racism and ignorance of the US' own malicious global spy system. Chinese success is the product of Chinese sacrifice and hard work — to invent rumors of tech theft is to merely expose the West's anxiety over Beijing's continued growth.