The US State Department sanctioned Chinese venture firm MiraclePlus for putting seed money into a startup founded by a former Google engineer convicted in January of stealing Google AI secrets. The engineer, Linwei Ding, pitched his startup, Shanghai Zhisuan Technology, to the MiraclePlus incubator by claiming it could replicate Google’s AI infrastructure, and MiraclePlus took a stake in return for the funding. Zhisuan itself and three MiraclePlus affiliates were also sanctioned. MiraclePlus said it never invested in Zhisuan and that the US didn’t contact it before imposing the sanctions, which it’s now trying to get lifted.
