Indian AI summit hit by Controversy over Robotic Dog claim

An Indian university has been asked to vacate its exhibition stall at the country’s flagship artificial intelligence summit after a staff member was filmed presenting a commercially available Chinese-made robotic dog as the university’s own creation, two government sources said.

In a video clip that went viral, Neha Singh, a communications professor at Galgotias University, told state broadcaster DD News: “You need to meet Orion. This has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University.”

Social media users quickly disputed the claim, identifying the robot as the Unitree Go2, a widely used research and education robot sold by China’s Unitree Robotics for about $2,800.

The incident has triggered sharp criticism and renewed scrutiny of India’s AI ambitions. The controversy intensified after IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw shared the video on his official social media account before deleting it amid backlash.

Both the university and Singh later said the robot was not developed by Galgotias and that the institution had not intended to claim it as its own. As of Wednesday morning, the stall remained open, with staff responding to media questions about alleged misrepresentation. A university representative said no formal notice to vacate had been received.

The India AI Impact Summit, held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, runs through Saturday and has been billed as the first major AI gathering hosted in the Global South. Speakers scheduled for Thursday include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI chief Sam Altman, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

Organisers have also faced complaints about overcrowding and logistics since the summit opened. Still, officials say more than $100 billion in AI-related investments were pledged, including commitments from Adani Group, Microsoft, and data centre operator Yotta.

India’s main opposition party, the Congress, condemned the episode, saying it had embarrassed the country on the global stage.