Tesla sues former engineer for allegedly stealing its supercomputer’s secrets

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

According to the first report, Alexander Yatskov is being sued for allegedly stealing information related to the company's supercomputer technology. According to the complaint, Yatskov downloaded the information to his personal devices and refused to give it back.

In January, Yatskov started working for the electric vehicle maker as a thermal engineer and aided in the design of Dojo's cooling systems. Dojo is a neural net training computer that processes large amounts of data used to train the artificial intelligence software in self-driving cars. According to the complaint, Yatskov had access to confidential information associated with the project.

All engineers sign a non-disclosure agreement that should prevent them from revealing or storing confidential information about Dojo, which is why the company says Yatskov has violated by accessing it on his own personal devices.

According to the complaint, Yatskov admitted to storing classified information on his personal devices when he was confronted by the company. The EV maker put Yatskov on administrative leave and asked him to bring in his devices so they could recover any stolen information. Yatskov is said to have given a laptop toTesla to hide any evidence against him. The decoy was made to look like it may have accessed only inoffensive information, like an offer letter.

On May 2nd, he resigned from his position. The company is trying to get a court order that would force Yatskov to return the classified information.