Artificial Intelligence and National Security

A federal jury in San Francisco has convicted former Google engineer Linwei "Leon" Ding, 38, on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets for stealing thousands of pages of the company’s confidential artificial intelligence technology for the benefit of Chinese firms and, prosecutors argued, China’s government. The jury found that between May 2022 and April 2023, Ding exfiltrated more than 2,000 pages of Google’s AI trade secrets by uploading them from Google’s network to his personal Google Cloud account while he was employed there. Prosecutors said he began talks for a chief technology officer role at a Chinese AI startup within weeks of starting the thefts and shared the stolen material with at least two Chinese tech companies. U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian called the verdict a clear message that Silicon Valley’s AI innovations are protected and that foreign‑directed theft 'will not go unpunished.' The case underscores what U.S. intelligence and defense officials have been warning for years on social media and in hearings: Beijing is aggressively targeting American intellectual property, especially in AI and semiconductors, to leapfrog U.S. capabilities.