Omar Abdullah slams Golgotias University for displaying Chinese-made robotic dog at AI summit

Jammu, Feb 18 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday criticised Golgotias University of Uttar Pradesh for displaying a commercially available Chinese-made robotic dog at the Artificial Intelligence (AI) summit in New Delhi and claiming it to have been the University’s own innovation.  

Omar Abdullah criticised the private university by posting on X, “So this is what Galgotias teaches its students by example - copy someone else’s work and claim it as your own.

“When you get caught you don’t own up and apologise, instead you 6 & 9 to make excuses. When that doesn’t work, you throw an employee under the bus and blame them for everything to save your own skin. Thank heavens, this wasn’t the education I received”.

Earlier, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi lambasted the IA summit, saying on X, “Instead of leveraging India’s talent and data, the AI summit is a disorganised PR spectacle - Indian data up for sale, Chinese products showcased”.

Golgotias University was asked to withdraw from the top artificial intelligence summit in New Delhi on Wednesday after one of its staffers displayed a commercially available robotic dog made in China, claiming it was the university’s own innovation.

According to officials, Galgotias University was ordered to take down its stand at the summit a day after the university’s professor of communications, Neha Singh, said that robotic dog Orion was developed by the Centre of Excellence at the university.

Internet users, however, quickly identified the robot as the Unitree Go2, sold by China’s Unitree Robotics with a starting price tag of $1,600 and used widely in research and education.

On Wednesday, Singh told reporters she never explicitly claimed the dog was the university’s own creation, but only as an exhibit.

As its damage control PR exercise, the Golgotias University said in a statement that the university was “deeply pained” and described the incident as a “propaganda campaign” that could spread negativity and harm the morale of students working to innovate, learn and build their skills using global technologies.

--IANS

sq/uk