The controversy that led to Galgotias University being asked to vacate AI expo

Galgotias University has been asked to vacate its stall at the India AI Impact Summit exhibition in Delhi, PTI quoted unidentified officials as saying on Wednesday. This came amid a controversy about the origin of a robotic dog the institute had displayed on Monday.

The summit, which began on Monday and will end on Friday, is being promoted as the first major gathering on artificial intelligence to be held in the Global South. Twenty world leaders, officials from major technology companies and exhibitors from 30 countries are attending the event.

On Wednesday, the Greater Noida-based university was criticised on social media after a member of the faculty passed off a commercially-available Chinese robot as having been developed by the university.

Social media users identified the robot as the Go2 manufactured by Chinese robotics company Unitree Robotics. It is available online for about $1,600, or Rs 1.4 lakh.

Amid the backlash, the university on Tuesday evening denied having claimed that it had built the robot.

The university added that it had recently bought the “Robodog” from Unitree for its students. “Our students are experimenting with it, testing its limits...” it added.

However, social media users said that the university’s claim was “incorrect and misleading”.

In a context note added to the university’s statement on X, social media users pointed...

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