New Delhi: An Indian university has been asked to vacate its stall at the country’s flagship AI summit after a staff member presented a commercially available Chinese robotic dog as the university’s own innovation, government sources said.
The controversy began when Professor Neha Singh, a communications faculty member at Galgotias University, introduced the robot to state broadcaster DD News, saying: “You need to meet Orion. This has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University.” The remarks quickly went viral.Social media users soon identified the robot as the Unitree Go2, a model sold by China’s Unitree Robotics for around USD 2,800 and widely used in research and education globally.
The incident sparked criticism and placed India’s artificial intelligence ambitions under scrutiny. The embarrassment intensified after IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw shared the video on his official social media account, later deleting it following backlash. Both Galgotias University and Professor Singh have since clarified that the robot was not a university creation, asserting that no false claims had been officially made.
A university representative said they had not received any formal notice of expulsion from the summit, and the stall remained open as of Wednesday morning, with staff addressing questions about plagiarism and misrepresentation. The India AI Impact Summit, held in New Delhi and billed as the first major AI gathering in the Global South, runs through Saturday and features addresses from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leading tech executives.
The summit has faced organizational challenges, including overcrowding and logistical issues, but over USD 100 billion in AI project investments have already been pledged.
India’s main opposition party, Congress, condemned the episode on social media, stating: “The Modi government has made a laughing stock of India globally regarding AI,” referencing the robot controversy
