Ex-Googler’s AI Trade Secrets Espionage Charge Centers on Intent

Arguments from a former Google LLC software engineer, accused of stealing the company’s artificial intelligence trade secrets to start a business in China, left a San Francisco federal judge conflicted Tuesday about whether the engineer’s actions rose to the level of espionage.

Judge Vince Chhabria weighed whether to dismiss parts of a federal criminal indictment saying it’s unclear whether the criminal charges against Linwei Ding, a Chinese national who joined Google in 2019, sufficiently allege that he intended to benefit the People’s Republic of China by starting an AI company in the country using Google’s secrets.

“I’m having a hard ...