The US has accused a former Google software engineer of stealing trade secrets related to artificial intelligence (AI) while surreptitiously working for two Chinese companies.
Leon Ding, whose real name is Linwei Ding, was taken into custody on Wednesday after being charged with four felonies in California.
More than 500 private files are said to have been taken by the Chinese national.
He may be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail and $250,000 in fines if found guilty on all counts.
Local media said that a lawyer representing Mr. Ding could not be reached for comment on the matter.
He is charged with stealing data related to Google’s supercomputing data centers’ architecture, which is utilized to house and train massive AI models.
The indictment states that Mr. Ding was employed by Google in 2019 and that one of his duties was creating this program.
In May 2022, he allegedly started uploading data from Google’s network to a personal Google account. The indictment states that these uploads persisted on a sporadic basis for a whole year.
Meanwhile, he is said to have spent several months in China working for Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Technology – a start-up tech company that approached him. The indictment says he was offered $14,800 (£11,620) per month to be the company’s Chief Technology Officer.
He is also alleged to have started his own tech firm, Shanghai Zhisuan Technology, which had a focus on AI and machine learning, and made himself the CEO.
The BBC has contacted Rongshu, while Zhisuan could not be immediately reached for comment.
Prosecutors allege Mr. Ding never told Google about his work for either company.
