Controversy at the AI summit in India

India is in the global spotlight for hosting the largest, first-of-its-kind AI summit in South Asia this week. However, a major controversy has unfolded around a China-made robotic dog in one of the exhibition booths.

What happened?
Organizers of the summit asked Galgotias University to dismantle its exhibition after one university staff member told the press that a displayed robot dog was an in-house innovation. Websleuths were quick to point out that the machine was a commercially available Unitree Go2 manufactured by China’s Unitree Robotics.

The incident has caused significant embarrassment for the host nation as it seeks to establish itself as a credible global hub for AI innovation.

The conference also faced logistical hurdles, including reports of hiked-up stay prices, traffic around the venue, theft, and long wait times due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s arrival.

The event features high-profile attendees, including French President Emmanuel Macron and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei.

Significant AI data center deals are expected this week, and experts suggest India could emerge as a more reliable alternative to the US for data-sharing.

Anthropic CEO was quoted as saying, “India’s adoption is even more extreme compared with the rest of the world. We can do experiments with hundreds of millions of people.”

American artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI and Perplexity are offering Indian users free access to their products.