Indian university kicked out of AI summit for claiming Chinese robot dog as its own invention

An Indian university has been forced to vacate its stall at this week’s flagship AI summit after falsely claiming to have developed a robot dog – which turned out to have been made in China.

Galgotias University, which is based in Greater Noida near the capital Delhi, displayed a four-legged robot branded “Orion” at the government-backed AI Impact Summit this week. In footage widely shared on social media, a university representative was seen describing the robot as a product “developed” by one of their university’s industry-collaborative hubs.

Online users were quick to point out that the device was the Unitree Go2, a commercially available robotic dog manufactured by Chinese firm Unitree and sold in India for around £2,000 to £3,000. The university was accused of attempting to pass off imported hardware as an indigenous product at an event intended to showcase India’s technological ambitions.

In a clip from the summit, a staff member appeared to be telling reporters the robot showed the “university’s emphasis on hands-on, real world AI deployment”. “This has been developed at the Centre for Excellence at the Galgotias University,” she says.

On Wednesday morning, staff from the university were seen vacating their stall at the event after the Press Trust of India reported that power had been cut to their section. Government sources were quoted as saying the university had been ordered to clear out, though the university denied receiving such a directive.

After the controversy erupted online, the university posted a statement on X admitting that the robot dog had been purchased from Unitree and was in fact being used as a learning tool for students.

The university denied it had claimed to have “built” the dog. “What we are building are minds that will soon design, engineer, and manufacture such technologies right here in Bharat (India),” it said.

One of the organisers of the summit from the Indian government, the India AI Mission chief executive Abhishek Singh, criticised the university for causing a controversy while the “whole world” was watching.

“The main problem is they claimed to be something they are not. They misled,” he was quoted as saying by Mint.

Professor Neha Singh, the university employee seen in the video claiming Galgotias had “developed” the dog, told reporters the controversy stemmed from a misunderstanding.

“’Mislead’ is a strong word… by one misinterpretation, the internet has gone by storm. It might be that I could not convey well what I had wanted to say, or you could not understand well what I wanted to say,” the university’s communications professor told NDTV.

The Independent has reached out to Galgotias University for comment.

The episode unfolded at an event – the first of its kind in the global South – designed to position India as a rising force in the artificial intelligence dominated by the US and China.

With over 600 startups and hundreds of exhibition pavilions showcasing AI tools across sectors from health to defence, the government has been aiming to present the event as evidence of India’s growing technological self-reliance.

But with over 250,000 people signed up to attend the summit at the massive 123-acre venue in central Delhi, the first day was marked by confusion, traffic woes, and concerns regarding long queues. The organisational issues appeared to have eased somewhat by Tuesday, and the Indian government has now said the summit will be extended by a day to allow more people to take part.