Indian University Got Kicked Out of a Major AI Summit for Passing Off a $2,800 Chinese Robot as Their Own Invention
Social media caught them red-handed and the whole thing went viral before the IT Minister could even delete his post about it.
This is one of those stories that is equal parts hilarious and embarrassing.
At India's massive AI Impact Summit this week (billed as the first major AI gathering in the Global South), a professor from Galgotias University proudly showed off a robotic dog to state TV cameras.
"You need to meet Orion. This has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University," Professor Neha Singh told DD News.
There was just one tiny problem. Social media users immediately recognized the robot as the Unitree Go2, a commercially available robotic dog made by a Chinese company called Unitree Robotics. You can buy one for about $2,800. It is not even rare or obscure. Researchers and hobbyists use them all over the world.
The situation got even worse when India's IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw actually shared the video clip on his official social media account before the backlash hit. He quietly deleted the post later.
The Indian government has since asked Galgotias University to pack up and leave the summit. The university is now claiming they never said the robot was theirs, which is a bold strategy considering the whole thing was filmed on national television.
The summit itself features big names like Google, OpenAI, and various world leaders discussing the future of AI. This was probably not the kind of attention organizers were hoping for. As reported by Reuters.
Source: Reuters
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