University Kicked Out of AI Summit for Claiming Chinese Robot as Their Own

An Indian university was ordered to leave a major artificial intelligence conference after a professor falsely claimed a commercially available Chinese robotic dog was developed by their school. The incident went viral on social media and has embarrassed India's government during their flagship AI summit.

Government officials have ordered an Indian university to remove its display from the country’s premier artificial intelligence conference after staff members falsely claimed a Chinese-made robot was their own invention, according to two government sources.

The controversy erupted when communications professor Neha Singh told the state television network DD News this week, “You need to meet Orion. This has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University.”

Social media users rapidly recognized the device as the Unitree Go2, a robotic dog manufactured by China’s Unitree Robotics that sells for approximately $2,800 and is commonly purchased by research institutions and schools worldwide.

The incident has generated intense backlash and highlighted concerns about India’s technology development goals in an unflattering way.

The situation became more awkward when IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw initially promoted the video on his official social media channels before the controversy exploded, forcing him to remove the post later.

Following the uproar, both the university and Professor Singh have clarified that the robotic dog was not developed by their institution and stated they never intended to suggest it was their creation.

As of Wednesday morning, the university’s booth continued operating with staff members responding to media inquiries about the plagiarism and misrepresentation allegations.

A university representative at the display said they had not yet been formally notified about any requirement to leave the conference.

The India AI Impact summit is taking place at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi through Saturday and has been promoted as the first significant artificial intelligence conference held in the Global South. Thursday’s speakers will include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Google’s Sundar Pichai, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei.

Beyond this controversy, the conference has experienced various organizational challenges since beginning, with attendees complaining about excessive crowding and logistical problems.

Despite these issues, the summit has generated over $100 billion in pledged investments for Indian AI initiatives, including commitments from the Adani Group conglomerate, Microsoft, and data center company Yotta.

India’s primary opposition party, Congress, joined others in condemning the incident.

“The Modi government has made a laughing stock of India globally with regard to AI,” the party posted on social media, referencing the robot controversy.