Delhi AI summit marred by Indian university’s claim to Chinese robot
The private institution had initially said the mechanized dog had been developed by its center
The global artificial intelligence summit in New Delhi has been marred by an Indian university’s claim that it developed a commercially-available Chinese robot.
On Tuesday, a Galgotias University professor told state-backed broadcaster DD News that someone at the private institution had developed a mechanized dog, and displayed it at its stand at the AI Impact Summit.
The university faced a backlash after internet users identified the robot as the Unitree Go2, sold by China’s Unitree Robotics. It walked back the academic’s claim and apologized for the confusion.
“One of our representatives, manning the pavilion, was ill-informed,” the university said in a statement. “She was not aware of the technical origins of the product and in her enthusiasm of being on camera, gave factually incorrect information even though she was not authorized to speak to the press.”
The institution’s pavilion has reportedly been removed from the summit venue.
Twenty world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as well as an array of technology company heads, are attending the summit.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Qualcomm’s CEO Cristiano Amon, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft President Brad Smith, and AMI Labs Executive Chairman Yann LeCun are all slated to attend the summit.
The India AI Impact Summit is being envisaged by New Delhi as a platform to position the country as a global hub for artificial intelligence.