What I saw at India’s AI summit

India hosted one of the world’s biggest AI events this week, but it was marred by chaos and confusion, apparently not the message it’s trying to send as it strives to become a leading artificial intelligence player.

Despite the drama, U.S. tech firms in particular couldn’t resist the temptation of the Indian market, talking up the country’s AI potential and making a number of announcements.

I have been on the ground in New Delhi since Monday and I can honestly say that the AI Impact Summit has been one of the most challenging reporting assignments of my career.

Traffic has been a nightmare more than usual in the Indian capital. There were times it didn’t move at all. On Wednesday, I had events and interviews at three different hotels and getting the team around to these appointments on time was a real challenge.

At one point on Thursday, were weren’t even sure if we’d be able to enter the Bharat Mandapam, the venue where the summit took place. That’s because instructions were not clear on when media would be allowed in on Thursday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the event.

We eventually found out we could enter at 6 a.m. local time. When we turned up, security did not let us in until later, not before a crowd of media had gathered at the gates. Inside, security were giving out conflicting instructions.

Several delegates expressed to me their frustrations over the organization of the summit.

The event itself was marred by other controversies. Bill Gates, who was named in the Epstein files, was scheduled to give a keynote address. There was then uncertainty if he would even turn up. The Gates Foundation had said earlier in the week that he would give the speech, but then on Thursday said the billionaire had pulled out.

Meanwhile, a university was reportedly kicked out of the summit for suggesting a robot dog they were showcasing was its own creation. A professor at Galgotias University told state-run broadcaster DD News that the robot, which was actually made by Chinese firm Unitree, was “developed” by the academic institution.

Online users called out the university, highlighting that the robot was made by a Chinese firm. The university denied claiming it had built the robot.

“We would like to clearly state that the robotic programming is part of our endeavor to make students learn AI programming and develop and deploy real-world skills using globally available tools and resources, given developing AI talent is [the] need of the hour,” the university said, according to media reports.

Indian IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw apologized on Tuesday for the…