WNAM MONITORING: Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered robotics, military applications and brain-computer research took center stage at India’s AI Impact Summit.
The weeklong summit, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, has brought together representatives from more than 100 countries. It is being promoted as the first such global AI gathering held in the Global South.
Technology leaders including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei attended, alongside world leaders French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Key exhibits included an autonomous drone docking station for city-level data collection, a “brain language model” capable of decoding electrical brain signals to predict thoughts and movements, and enterprise-grade AI platforms able to handle millions of users, according to India Today.
The Indian Army showcased a sleep-detection system designed to prevent driver fatigue in difficult terrain. It monitors eye movement and head position and sends real-time alerts.
“The idea behind our stall is to demonstrate how technologies developed in the military can be used for civilian purposes,” Amit Mehna, director of AI for the Army, told The Hindu.
The army also presented X-Face, a facial recognition system capable of identifying a person in a large crowd even if they have grown a beard or are wearing sunglasses or a hat.
Controversy erupted at the summit after Galgotias University presented a robotic dog, Orion, which was later confirmed to be produced by Chinese manufacturer Unitree Robotics.
The university later apologized and clarified that its representative at the summit was “not aware of the technical origins of the product and, in her enthusiasm of being on camera, gave factually incorrect information.”
“Understanding the organizers’ sentiment, we have vacated the premises,” it said in a statement on social media platform X.
Political opposition figures also seized on the episode. Leaders from the Indian National Congress accused the Modi government of mismanagement and promoting foreign-made technology as indigenous.
Chiding the Modi government over AI development, the party said in a statement. “In the ongoing AI summit, Chinese robots are being displayed as our own.”
Entrepreneur Dhananjay Yadav said devices from his company’s stall were briefly stolen but later recovered. “The devices were stolen but have now been recovered,” he wrote on X.
The opening day also saw complaints over poor crowd management, with exhibitors and delegates reporting last-minute closures and security sweeps.
Previously hosted in France, the UK and South Korea, the summit has expanded from an AI safety forum to a broader trade and governance platform.
Separately, Google on Wednesday announced the launch of new America-India “Connect” subsea cable routes, an initiative the company said is anchored by a five-year, $15 billion AI infrastructure investment in the South Asian nation aimed at increasing the reach, reliability and resilience of digital connectivity across four continents.
“We’re also rolling out a new AI Certificate… to unlock discoveries in science & education, live speech-to-speech translation for 70+ languages and more,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on X after meeting Modi in New Delhi.
