Google Engineer Sentenced to Nearly One Year for Stealing AI Trade Secrets
A former Google software engineer has been sentenced to nearly one year in prison for stealing trade secrets related to the company's artificial intelligence technology.
Linwei Ding was hired by Google in 2019 as a software engineer to help develop its supercomputing data centers, but he allegedly transferred and downloaded over 1,255 internal documents, comprising an estimated 14,000 pages, between the spring of 2022 and 2023.
The government sought a sentence of 70 months in prison, arguing that Ding's crimes were complex and calculated. In contrast, Ding's attorney requested a sentence of three months' home confinement, citing his client's lack of a prior criminal record.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ultimately sentenced Ding to 12 months, minus one day, with two years of supervised release, as well as $198,000 in restitution to Google and a $2,500 fine.