Former Chinese Employee at Google Charged with Stealing AI Trade Secrets

A former Chinese employee at Google has been accused of stealing AI trade secrets from the firm. According to a Bloomberg report, The US Justice Department filed charges against an ex-Chinese software engineer at the company. The allegations and scrutiny come against the backdrop of AI already facing a downturn. At present, allegations about the technology range from “objectionable picture generation” to privacy concerns.

Former Google Engineer Charged with Stealing

Bloomberg in its report highlights that The US Justice Department accused a Chinese software engineer employed by Alphabet Inc.’s Google of stealing trade secrets for creating artificial intelligence from the company’s supercomputing data centers. The accused has currently been charged with four counts of stealing trade secrets. Additionally, if found guilty on all counts, he could receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Moreover, Bloomberg also brings attention to the fact that in recent years, the US Attorney’s office in San Francisco has prosecuted several cases of intellectual property theft involving China. Among these cases are those involving three former Apple engineers who are alleged to have taken trade secrets from the company’s autonomous driving project to secure employment with Chinese companies.

AI Scrutiny Increases as Multiple User Issues Surface

The AI industry has faced larger scrutiny in the past few months. The issues stem from various problems with “credibility” and “accuracy” taking center stage. Just recently, Microsoft’s AI system was under scrutiny, and concerns had been raised about the safety and validity of AI. An employee of Microsoft allegedly said that the company’s AI system was producing “offensive images”. Additionally, the claims coincide with criticism of Google. Microsoft’s competitor was accused of creating improper images using its Gemini AI tool. Google previously declared that it would stop taking pictures of people due to criticism of the way its Gemini artificial intelligence program processed pictures based on race. Google reportedly admitted that they were taking care of recent issues with Gemini’s image-generating feature. The company subsequently decided to stop taking human photos.

The repeated issues with the functioning of AI have kept sentiments dented around the technology. Additionally, the issues with AI’s credibility have also garnered attention. In case an artificial intelligence tool does produce information, users have often questioned the source and credibility of the text.

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