It was after Wong left that according to the U.S. Justice Department, Apple discovered he had accessed large amounts of proprietary data during his last days on the job.
“Among the materials discovered from the devices in Wang’s home was the source code for Apple’s entire autonomous system’s project as it existed around the time that Wang left Apple,” said Ismail Ramsey, U.S. attorney for Northern California. According to the indictment, Wang bought a one way ticket from San Francisco to China and then took off on the same night his home was searched.
Local experts say the problem here isn’t the stolen information since artificial intelligence has evolved substantially in the last five years, the concern is the way it was taken. “A coordinated theft is a big issue if it is acted upon quickly, companies from all over the world, people from all over the world, are trying to get away, it's a very competitive space. Actually applying these systems is really the issue, and typically companies are keeping that secret,” said Dr. Ronjon Nag, president of the R42 group.NBC Bay Area reached out to Apple for a statement on the indictment, but has not heard back.