A Google employee was charged Tuesday with stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets from the tech giant while secretly working with two Chinese-based companies in the AI industry. Linwei Ding, who also goes by Leon Ding, is charged with four counts of theft of trade secrets. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison for each count. “The Justice Department will not tolerate the theft of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies that could put our national security at risk,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Wednesday, adding that “we will fiercely protect sensitive technologies developed in America from falling into the hands of those who should not have them.” Ding, a 38-year-old Chinese national who lives in California, is accused of copying more than 500 files with confidential information from Google into his own personal account over the course of one year, beginning in 2022. The files included technology involved in the building blocks of Google’s advanced supercomputing data centers, prosecutors say. An attorney for Ding is not yet listed. As part of his responsibilities at Google, prosecutors say, Ding helped to develop the software deployed in Google’s supercomputing data centers. Because of that work, Ding had access to Google’s “hardware infrastructure, the software platform, and the AI models and applications they supported,” they say. A few months after Ding allegedly began copying Google’s files, he was offered the chief technology officer role for an “early-stage technology company” based in China, the Justice Department says. Ding allegedly traveled to China for several months, where he participated in investor meetings to raise money for the company, and potential investors to the company were told that Ding was an executive and owned 20% of the company’s stock.

Full report : Ex-Google Engineer Charged With Stealing A.I. Secrets for Chinese Firm.