英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋的“蜜罐”丑闻仍在令人工智能行业震动，但业内一些人认为，这个问题远不止一个人那么简单。
The AI industry is still reeling from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s honeypot scandal, but some in the industry see it as an issue that’s much larger than one man.
中国政府数十年来一直活跃于经济间谍活动，而随着半导体成为人工智能热潮的核心，任何相关公司都面临被渗透的巨大压力。与此同时，许多借这轮热潮致富的高管也让自己成了容易下手的目标。
The Chinese government has been active in economic espionage for decades, and with semiconductors at the center of the AI boom, there’s intense pressure to infiltrate any company involved. At the same time, many of the executives getting rich off that boom have made themselves easy targets.
作为投资情报公司Heron Intelligence的首席执行官，内特·辛格对这一问题有着独特的观察视角。他的公司从事企业尽职调查：本质上就是确保企业在进行重大收购或高管招聘之前掌握相关的负面信息。辛格表示，虽然英伟达案尤为严重，但这只是冰山一角。
As CEO of investment intel firm Heron Intelligence, Nate Singer has a unique view into the problem. His firm works on corporate due diligence: Essentially, making sure companies know the relevant dirt before making a major acquisition or executive hire. And while the Nvidia case is particularly severe, Singer says it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“我们有前员工谈论高层管理人员的行为，”辛格对TechCrunch说，高管们“确实越过了不该越过的界线”。在一篇广泛传播的领英帖子中，辛格详细描述了其中一个案例：一位首席执行官的妻子突然出现在董事会会议室，“尖叫着说她的丈夫和另一家公司的高管带着几个年轻女子乘坐公司专机四处飞行（这些女子后来也被证明是国家资助的特工）”。这是一个令人震惊的故事，但不幸的是，这类事情并不罕见。辛格说，他至少看到过三起类似案件的报告，并怀疑还有更多案件未被报告。
“We’ve got former employees talking about behavior at senior executive levels,” Singer told TechCrunch, saying executives are “really crossing lines that should not be crossed.”In a widely circulated LinkedIn post, Singer detailed one case in which a CEO’s wife made an unexpected board room appearance, “screaming about her husband and another company exec flying around in the corporate jet with a couple young ladies (who also turned out to be state-sponsored actors).”It’s an alarming story, but an unfortunately common one. Singer says he’s seen at least three reports of similar cases, and suspects many more have gone unreported.
“远不止这一个女人，”辛格说。“他们安插在这些公司内部。”半导体公司本来就是国际贸易窃密的重点目标。近年来已有数十起类似案件被起诉，包括2006年涉及制造巨头台积电的一起案件。
“There’s a lot more than this one woman,” Singer said. “They are embedded in these companies.”Semiconductor companies are already big targets for international trade secret theft. There have been dozens of prosecutions for similar cases in recent years, including a case involving the fabrication powerhouse TSMC in 2006.
2017年，一家未具名的“湾区半导体设备制造商”的四名高管被控窃取商业机密，供中国的一家竞争公司使用。根据起诉书，涉案技术“涉及用于照明和电子设备（如平板电视和智能手机）的半导体晶圆的大规模制造”。此类案件中的任何性元素很少公开，部分原因是高管及其公司会面临严重后果。但据辛格说，持续存在的威胁已成为业内一种公开的秘密。
In 2017, four executives at an unnamed “Bay Area semiconductor equipment manufacturer” were charged with stealing trade secrets for use at a competing company in China. According to the indictment, the technology in question “related to the high-volume manufacturing of semiconductor wafers to be used in lighting and electronic devices, such as flat screen televisions and smart phones.“Any sexual elements in such cases rarely become public, in part because of the severe consequences for executives and their companies. But according to Singer, the ongoing threat has become a kind of open secret in the industry.
“业内有很多资深人士知道这种事正在发生，并且实际上在纵容它，”他告诉TechCrunch。
“There are a lot of senior people in the industry that know this is happening, and are effectively condoning it,” he told TechCrunch.