The rise of artificial intelligence is reviving an old fear in American companies: Chinese espionage

The United States has been accusing China of technological espionage for decades. An estimate from the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) released in 2021 estimated annual losses of between 200,000 and 600,000 million dollars related to the theft of intellectual property by the Asian giant. “This has been happening for the last 20 years,” the interim director of the aforementioned organization said at the time. in an interview with CBS.

Despite the alleged seriousness of the matter, it has been a long time since the North American country has not reached the alert level currently in place. Financial Times points out that the US government is expressing greater concern about Chinese espionage amid the race to dominate the development of artificial intelligence (AI). This scenario translates into greater pressure for the private sector, which has to take additional measures to protect its secrets.

Silicon Valley on alert over Chinese espionage

The modus operandi that is once again setting off alarm bells in Washington is not very different from what China would have carried out in many other countries and even in the United States. Beijing would be using spy workers to steal confidential information from the companies that hired them to work. This, precisely, had already been suffered firsthand by the world leader in lithographic equipment ASML in the Netherlands and the semiconductor manufacturer SK Hynix in South Korea.

Now, as the economic newspaper explains, high-profile American companies such as Google and OpenAI are being stricter in their personnel selection processes. In an effort to improve internal security and privacy, in some cases profiles are investigated to avoid ending up hiring talent that could end up leaking sensitive information and, consequently, producing million-dollar economic losses in the medium or long term.

The aforementioned mechanism, however, is not so simple to implement. Some companies manage a huge number of hires and employees, mainly in times where qualified staff to drive the latest AI projects. This presents a challenge that other companies are trying to address. A tool called Strider is gaining traction within corporate America.

It is an AI-powered system that collects information about the alleged plans of foreign intelligence agencies to recruit scientists with the aim of leaking information. If a person appears in the Striler system, the company interested in hiring them can conduct additional research that includes family and financial ties. Too detailed practices, it should be noted, can dangerously exceed the permitted limits.

The United States currently leads the development of AI. Some of the biggest players in this industry are within its borders, but China does not want to be left behind. Beijing has deployed a battery of measures to gain ground. These range from creating their own graphics processing units (GPUs) for data centers to launching a cascade of advanced language models. Espionage would also be an important resource for their mission.

Images | Chris Yang | Bernard Hermant

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