Tesla has reportedly brought in its former engineer Alexander Yatskov for allegedly stealing closely guarded classified information related to the company's supercomputer technology, called Project Dojo.
In a copy of the complaint, Tesla accused Yatskov of downloading information onto his personal device and refusing to return it. Tesla claimed Yatskov had lied about his work history and skills.
He himself started working for electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla as a thermal engineer in January and assisted in the design of the Dojo's cooling system.
Reporting us from The Verge, the Dojo is Tesla's neural net training computer that processes vast amounts of data that is used to train AI software in Tesla's autonomous cars.
According to the complaint, Yatskov had access to Dojo cooling information, as well as other classified information related to the project.
Tesla said all engineers signed nondisclosure agreements that could prevent them from disclosing or retaining confidential information about the Dojo, which Tesla said Yatskov had violated by allegedly deleting Tesla's confidential information from work devices and accounts, accessing it on his personal devices, and creating Tesla documents containing confidential details. Project Dojo on a personal computer.
Tesla also said it found Yatskov sending an email with Tesla's confidential information from his personal email address to his work email
As stated in the complaint, Tesla claims Yatskov admitted to keeping confidential information on his personal device when the company confronted him about the situation.
Tesla then placed Yatskov on administrative leave starting April 6, 2022, and asked him to bring his device so that Tesla could recover the stolen information.
Yatskov responded to the request by giving Tesla a "dummy" laptop in an attempt to hide any evidence against him.
Yatskov resigned from his position on May 2. Tesla is suing Yatskov for damages, and is also seeking a lawsuit that would compel Yatskov to return classified information.