Galgotias University has been asked to vacate its stall at the India AI Impact Summit exhibition in Delhi, PTI quoted unidentified officials as saying on Wednesday. This came amid a controversy about the origin of a robotic dog the institute had displayed on Monday.
Power to the university’s pavilion at the summit was reportedly cut off, according to the news agency.
The summit, which began on Monday and will end on Friday, is being promoted as the first major gathering on artificial intelligence in the Global South. Twenty world leaders, officials from major technology companies and exhibitors from 30 countries are attending the event.
On Wednesday, the Greater Noida-based university was criticised on social media after a faculty member passed off a commercially available Chinese robot as developed by the university.
Social media users identified the robot as the Go2, manufactured by Chinese robotics company Unitree Robotics. It is available online for about $1,600, or Rs 1.4 lakh.
Amid the backlash, the university on Tuesday evening denied having claimed that it had built the robot.
The university added that it had recently bought the “Robodog” from Unitree for its students. “Our students are experimenting with it, testing its limits...” it added.
However, social media users said that the university’s claim was “incorrect and misleading”.
In a context note added to the university’s statement on X, social media users pointed out that the institute had named the off-the-shelf product “Orion” and had claimed during an interview to DD News that it had been “developed by the Centre of Excellence at the Galgotias University”.
Hi, professor Dr Aishwarya Srivastava.
"You need to meet Orion. This has been developed by the centre of excellence at Galgotias University." https://t.co/3yK6fUVHHo pic.twitter.com/y9EDiJnm9n
— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) February 18, 2026 The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which has organised the artificial intelligence event, had shared the DD News interview about the robot on social media.
On Wednesday, Professor Aishwarya Srivastava reiterated to Times Now that the university had never claimed to have manufactured it and “never tried to hide the logo of Go2” on the robot.
“It got misinterpreted and we humbly apologise,” Srivastava said. “[What] we were trying to say was that a part of the investment is in such kinds of products, which we are bringing from across the globe for our students to experience hands-on.”
Professor Neha Singh, who had made the claim on Monday, told PTI on Wednesday that “perhaps I did not communicate it properly” and that the “intent may not have been properly understood”.
Singh added that she did not have information about the university having been asked to vacate its kiosks. “What I know is that today we are all present here,” she said.
Later in the day, Galgotias University issued an apology for the “confusion created” at the summit.
“One of our representatives, manning the pavilion, was ill-informed,” the university stated. “She was not aware of the technical origins of the product and in her enthusiasm of being on camera, gave factually incorrect information even though she was not authorised to speak to the press.”
There was “no institutional intent to misrepresent this innovation”, it added.
“Understanding the organisers sentiment, we have vacated the premises,” said the university.
‘Disorganised PR spectacle’: Opposition
On Wednesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the AI Impact Summit was a “disorganised PR spectacle”.
In a social media post, he said: “Instead of leveraging India’s talent and data, the AI summit is a disorganised PR spectacle – Indian data up for sale, Chinese products showcased.”
Gandhi also shared a post by the Congress, which said that the Narendra Modi government had caused “irreparable damage” to the country’s image.
The Opposition party said that the Union government had made India a “laughing stock” globally, adding that this was “brazenly shameless”.
“In the ongoing AI summit, Chinese robots are being displayed as our own,” it said on social media. “The Chinese media has mocked us. This is truly embarrassing for India...”
Chaos at the summit
Several participants attending the event on the first day, Monday, had complained on social media about the event having been mismanaged.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said that what could have been a showcase of India’s digital and artificial intelligence capabilities, had turned into “utter chaos and rank mismanagement by this ‘PR [public relations] hungry’ government”.
He listed exhibitors having been left without food and water, their products getting stolen, personal electronic devices being prohibited as among the reasons for the distress.
Dhananjay Yadav, co-founder of AI firm NeoSapien, said on Monday that the company’s wearable products displayed at the exhibition had been stolen after they had to be left unattended when security personnel asked his team to leave while they cordoned off the area for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit.
The devices were recovered by the police a day later, Yadav said.
On Tuesday, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw apologised for the problems faced by those attending the event.
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