An Indian university faces expulsion from a major AI summit after presenting a Chinese-made robot as its own creation, sparking a plagiarism scandal.
NEW DELHI: An Indian university has been asked to vacate its stall at the country’s flagship AI summit. The directive follows an incident where a staff member presented a commercially available Chinese robotic dog as the university’s own creation, according to two government sources.
The controversy erupted after Professor Neha Singh, a communications professor at Galgotias University, introduced the robot to state broadcaster DD News. “You need to meet Orion. This has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University,” she said in remarks that later went viral.
Social media users quickly identified the robot as the Unitree Go2. The model is sold by China’s Unitree Robotics for about USD 2,800 and is widely used in global research and education.
The episode has drawn sharp criticism and cast an uncomfortable spotlight on India’s artificial intelligence ambitions. The embarrassment was amplified after IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw shared the video clip on his official social media account before the backlash, later deleting the post.
Both Galgotias University and Professor Singh have since stated the robot was not a university creation. They asserted the university had never claimed otherwise.
A representative at the university’s booth said Galgotias had yet to receive any official communication about being expelled from the event. The stall remained open to visitors as of Wednesday morning, with officials fielding questions about accusations of plagiarism and misrepresentation.
The India AI Impact summit in New Delhi has been billed as the first major AI gathering hosted in the Global South. It runs until Saturday and features addresses from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top tech executives.
The event has faced broader organisational difficulties since opening, with delegates reporting overcrowding and logistical issues. Despite this, more than USD 100 billion in investment for India AI projects has been pledged during the summit.
India’s main opposition party, Congress, expressed outrage over the incident. “The Modi government has made a laughing stock of India globally with regard to AI,” it said on social media, citing the robot controversy.
