An Indian university is facing criticism after a professor was caught presenting a Chinese-made robot dog as its own at a major artificial intelligence summit. The professor has reportedly been asked to leave the event.
“You need to meet Orion. This has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University,” Neha Singh, a professor of communications, told Indian state-run broadcaster DD News this week.
However, social media users quickly identified the robot as the Unitree Go2, manufactured by China’s Unitree Robotics for around $2,800 and widely used in research and educational institutions worldwide.
The incident has drawn sharp criticism and placed India’s AI ambitions under an uncomfortable spotlight.
The embarrassment was further amplified by Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who shared the video clip on his official social media account before the backlash. The post was later deleted.
Galgotias University and Singh have since clarified that the robot was not a university creation and that the university had never claimed otherwise.
“Let us be clear, Galgotias has not built this robodog, neither have we claimed,” the university said in a post on X. “But what we are building are minds that will soon design, engineer, and manufacture such technologies.”
The university stall remained open to visitors on Wednesday morning, with officials fielding questions from the media regarding accusations of plagiarism and misrepresentation. A representative at the booth told Reuters that Galgotias has not received any communication about being removed from the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
‘Embarrassment on the global stageLaughing stock globally’
The opposition Indian National Congress seized on the incident to criticize Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is hosting nearly 20 world leaders and dozens of national delegations at the five-day summit.
“The Modi government has made a laughing stock of India globally, with regard to AI. In the ongoing AI summit, Chinese robots are being displayed as our own,” the party posted on X.
“This is truly embarrassing for India,” it added, calling the incident “brazenly shameless.”
The India AI Impact Summit, running through Saturday, has been billed as the first major AI gathering hosted in the Global South. Key speakers scheduled for Thursday include Modi, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
While the event has faced organizational challenges, including overcrowding and logistical issues reported by delegates, more than $100 billion in investments for Indian AI projects have been pledged during the summit, with contributions from the Adani Group, Microsoft, and data center firm Yotta.
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