NEW DELHI: An Indian university has been asked to vacate its stall at the country’s flagship AI summit after a staff member was caught presenting a commercially available robotic dog made in China as its own creation, two government sources said on Wed (Feb 18).
“You need to meet Orion. This has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University,” Neha Singh, a professor of communications, told state-run broadcaster DD News this week in remarks that have since gone viral.
But social media users quickly identified the robot as the Unitree Go2, sold by China’s Unitree Robotics for about US$2,800 and widely used in research and education globally.
The episode has drawn sharp criticism and has cast an uncomfortable spotlight on India’s artificial intelligence ambitions.
The embarrassment was amplified by IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who shared the video clip on his official social media account before the backlash. The post was later deleted.
Both Galgotias and Singh have subsequently said the robot was not a university creation and the university had never claimed otherwise.
The stall remained open to visitors on Wednesday morning with university officials fielding questions from media about accusations of plagiarism and misrepresentation.
Galgotias has yet to receive any communication about being kicked out from the event, a representative at the booth said.
But local reports indicate that the university vacated its stall at the AI summit later on Wednesday.
Read the full article here
