500 secret AI files and a China startup: Inside the case against ex-Google engineer Linwei Ding

Former Google engineer Linwei Ding received a nearly year-long prison sentence on Tuesday for stealing the company's trade secrets related to its artificial intelligence technology, according to the report by Kqed.org, a San Francisco-based media organization. US District Judge Vince Chhabria described the engineer's actions as a "systematic, brazen effort to steal Google's property" and stated that Ding was aware of the consequences of his actions.

The sentencing followed a January jury verdict that found Ding guilty on seven counts of stealing proprietary information linked to Google's AI operations and economic espionage, though the judge overturned the espionage conviction in August, citing insufficient evidence. Prosecutors alleged that Ding transferred over 500 confidential files from Google's systems to his personal Google Cloud account over the course of a year, containing trade secrets about the company's hardware and software used for training large AI models.

As part of the investigation, Ding visited a China-based technology company, Rongshu, in late 2022, and later established his own China-based technology company, Zhisuan, which aimed to replicate Google's AI infrastructure. Ding did not disclose his connections with Rongshu and Zhisuan to Google during his employment.