Greater Noida-based Galgotias University on Wednesday issued a public apology after a Chinese-made quadruped robot, Orion, was falsely presented as an in-house innovation at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
The row erupted when Neha Singh, a professor of communications at the university, told a media house that Orion “has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University.” The clip went viral, with social media users identifying the device as a Unitree Go2, widely used in research and education globally.
Summit organisers subsequently instructed the university to vacate its stall. In its statement, Galgotias said the incident was the result of “ill-informed” staff and not an institutional attempt to misrepresent innovation. “She was not aware of the technical origins of the product and, in her enthusiasm of being on camera, gave factually incorrect information… there was no institutional intent to misrepresent this innovation,” the university added.
The university emphasised that it had never claimed to manufacture the robot, and the display was meant to inspire students to innovate using advanced AI technologies. Faculty and students expressed concern over the negative publicity, warning that it could impact student morale.
By Wednesday afternoon, the Galgotias stall stood empty, though a few students remained on-site.
Staff response
Professor Neha Singh claimed that the controversy arose from unclear communication. “We cannot claim that we manufactured it. The intent was to introduce students to cutting-edge AI tools to inspire them to create something better on their own,” singh said.
Also read: Galgotias University officials asked to exit AI Impact Summit
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