Google Faces Lawsuit for Allegedly Stealing AI Tech: Singular Computing Claims Patent Infringement
Tech giant Google is once again under fire as Singular Computing, a Massachusetts-based tech company, has filed a lawsuit alleging that Google stole its patented AI technology for use in Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). Singular claims that Google incorporated their patented tech after meetings between Google and Singular founder Joseph Bates from 2010 to 2014. The lawsuit asserts that these copied technologies formed the foundation for AI features in Google’s services such as Search, Gmail, and Translate.
During the trial in a Boston court, jurors were presented with emails from Google’s chief scientist, Jeff Dean, discussing how Singular’s technology could be well-suited for Google’s products. However, Google’s defense lawyer argued that the team responsible for developing the chipsets never met with Singular’s founder and that they had independently designed the chipsets. Furthermore, Google’s lawyer claimed that Singular’s technology was fundamentally different from their chipsets and had a higher risk of producing incorrect calculations.
Interestingly, pretrial documents revealed that Singular Computing initially sought up to $7 billion in damages, but during the trial, their lawyers requested $1.67 billion. Google introduced its first TPU in 2016 and has been utilizing them in data centers since at least 2015. The TPUs have been instrumental in providing more relevant search results and improving services like Street View. Google’s TPUs are currently in their fifth generation, enabling the training of AI models over their cloud infrastructure.
Singular Computing asserts that Google’s second and third versions of TPUs, released in 2017 and 2018, infringe on their patents. Additionally, Google is engaged in a separate legal battle with Singular Computing in a Washington appeals court based on an appeal filed against the US Patent and Trademark Office.
This lawsuit adds to Google’s increasing list of legal disputes. Recently, the company faced a high-profile lawsuit from Epic Games, which resulted in a favorable ruling for the game developer. Google has since appealed that decision. Alongside this, Google agreed to a $700 million settlement in another antitrust lawsuit related to the Play Store.
As the trial between Google and Singular Computing continues, industry experts speculate that it may last for a couple of weeks. The outcome of this case could have significant implications for future patent disputes in the AI industry.
