By Team Fe
It was a four-legged guest named “Orion” who became the unexpected star at the India AI Impact Summit over the last three days. But the storm came soon enough.
In a now-viral clip aired on state broadcaster DD News, Neha Singh, a professor of communications at Galgotias University, proudly introduced “Orion” as a creation of the university’s Centre of Excellence. The quadruped robot demonstrated its mobility and surveillance features, drawing curious crowds and cameras alike.
There was just one hitch. Online sleuths quickly identified Orion as the Unitree Go2, a commercially available robotic dog made by China’s Unitree Robotics, widely used in research labs and classrooms around the world. Orion can be bought by anybody for roughly $2,800.
Within hours, social media had done what it does best — fact-check at warp speed. Memes flew. Screenshots circulated. Questions mounted. Had a made-in-China robot just been presented as made-in-India innovation at the country’s flagship AI event?
The optics were obviously awkward as the summit, pitched as a celebration of indigenous capability and global ambition, suddenly found itself fielding uncomfortable questions.
The university was asked to vacate space immediately as the organisers said they did not want controversy to overshadow the broader effort. IT Secretary S Krishnan made it clear the government would not tolerate exhibits misrepresented as original creations. Abhishek Singh, additional secretary in the ministry of electronics and information technology, said the intention is not to stifle innovation but it should not be misleading. The controversy “should not overshadow the kind of effort that the others have put in,” he said.
The university, for its part, pushed back. It said the robot was being used as a teaching tool to help students learn AI programming and real-world deployment skills. It insisted it had never claimed to have manufactured the robot and described the backlash as a “propaganda campaign” that could hurt student morale. In a statement, the university apologised for what it termed “ill-informed” comments by one of its representatives who was not authorised to speak to the press.
Meanwhile, the stall—briefly the most talked-about corner of the expo—stood stripped of display material.
The incident snowballed into political commentary, with Opposition leaders seizing on the episode to question the government’s AI narrative. Adding to the embarrassment, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had earlier shared the clip online before deleting it.
In the grand scheme, Orion may amount to little more than a summit sideshow. Yet the episode underscores a deeper truth about AI’s moment in India: ambition is sky-high, scrutiny even higher. At a time when the country is pitching itself as a global AI powerhouse, authenticity matters. In a digital age where every demo is dissected in real time, even a robot dog cannot escape the internet’s nose for detail.
For now, the summit rolls on. But long after the banners come down and the investment numbers are tallied, many will remember an imported robodog which became the face of India’s AI moment for all the wrong reasons.