This is going to get ugly. Apparently China has been stealing some secrets from various projects related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) of some of the most important companies on the planet and those that have made the most progress in that sector: Google and Manzana.

Let’s first look at the most recent case that has caused the most noise: A former company engineer, named Linwei Ding38 years old, was arrested in Newark, California, United States, on charges of stealing and transferring more than 500 confidential files from the technology company to his personal accounts.

The stolen information involved key data about Google’s Artificial Intelligence infrastructure, which currently runs the platform. Gemini with shocking results, despite its turbulent launch.

So this incident has generated concern in a context of high tension between the United States and China over the development of this technology.

The most alarming thing of all is that this would not be an isolated case. On the contrary, this behavior would already be somewhat established in a relative pattern, with this type of intrusions by the Asian country being recurrent.

Systematic theft in Artificial Intelligence projects: China and Google becomes recurrent
According to what colleagues from cnnThe indictment filed in federal court in California recounts how Ding, who began working for Google in 2019, downloaded confidential files from his company-issued laptop to personal cloud storage accounts.

The documents, considered as “building blocks” of Google AI, were stolen over a period of one year, from May 2022 to May 2023. So it would have taken about 36 months within the company before it began to steal information.

The investigations so far have revealed that Ding not only stole the information, but also used it to benefit rival technology companies in China. Since he is accused of having helped raise capital for one of these companies, even holding the position of Chief Technology Officer.

The icing on the cake of cynicism is that on top of all this the engineer founded another AI company last year in China, where he also served as CEO.

For now, Ding faces four counts of theft of trade secrets. If convicted, he could receive a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to USD $250,000 for each of the accusations charged.

The delicate point of all this is that the arrest occurs in the middle of a moment of high tension between both countries where USA has imposed multiple blockades and regulations in the fields of development, export of hardware for AI and more.

But the most extreme thing is that this would not be the first case of theft of trade secrets from American companies by Chinese citizens.

Since there is a relatively recent history of a former employee of Manzana who was convicted of stealing confidential information from the now dead Apple Car project to sell it to companies in China that also work in the field.

A modus operandi established by China: seducing employees
In case of Xiaolang Zhangthe former Apple engineer who ended up sentenced to 120 days in prison and three years of supervised release for the theft of confidential information about the development of the company’s autonomous vehicle, known as Apple Car, shows us how China works.

There is a pattern that can be clearly seen, where Asian competitors end up contacting a worker involved in a key project to convince them to steal secrets from strategic areas, such as Artificial Intelligence or self-driving cars.

Zhang, who initially pleaded not guilty, finally admitted his guilt in 2022, receiving his final sentence a few days ago at the beginning of February 2024.

According to court documents, the former employee transferred sensitive information to his wife’s laptop, including a 25-page file with engineering schematics and technical manuals for the prototype vehicle.

Additionally, he stole circuit boards and a Linux server from the company’s laboratories. The theft was discovered when Zhang, after resigning from Apple and traveling to China, planned to work for XPeng Motorsa company that also develops autonomous driving technology.

CCTV footage captured Zhang taking Apple hardware and an investigation was triggered. But we see some points in common with both cases.

It is always a native employee of the country, with a long period of time working in the company to be stolen, confidential files are always transferred and they end up with competitors from China.

This is a trend that does not seem to be going down.