Despite its excesses, social media can bring home bitter truths

The India AI Summit 2026, which intended to amplify the voice of the global south in the AI space was marred after a controversy erupted when Galgotias University showcased a Chinese robot as their own development on national television.

During an interview with DD News, the Head of Department for Communications, from the private university while displaying a robo-dog said, “Meet Orion, this has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at the Galgotias University”. Social media soon identified the robot as a product by Unitree, a private company started by tech entrepreneur Wang Xinxing. It came to light that this particular Go2 quadruped model can be purchased online for $1,600.

As is the case with the internet, in a sea of voices, things turned messy. The news spread like wildfire in the form of a meme fest because everyone had a punchline to deliver. A meme trying to exaggerate the university’s claimed technological prowess showed an illustration of the Egyptians building the pyramids with the caption, ‘How did they build this without Galgotias University Students.’ Stills from the 2010 movie ‘Robot’, which showed the lead Rajnikanth working on his Robot Chitti were captioned, ‘Galgotias students working on their robot’.

A whole section of jibes was aimed at the professor who became the face of the controversy. A meme template showing controversial public figures as faculty members in subjects linked to their scandals became widely popular. An X user posted the picture of Vijay Mallya, a businessman accused of money laundering with the caption, ‘Faculty of Ethical Studies, Galgotias University. An old video of a journalist claiming that the ₹2,000 note had a GPS chip was shared with the caption, ‘Senior IT professor at Galgotias University.’

After all this backlash, the professor very confidently faced the media and said that she was misunderstood and never claimed the robot to be an in-house development. During the clarification she said, “My six can be your nine”, — another statement which became a punchline against her. Following this, news organisations published headlines reporting that the professor had been fired as her LinkedIn status update said ‘open to work’.

In an apology statement, the university held the professor responsible for the lapse. The statement said, “We at Galgotias University, wish to apologise profusely for the confusion created at the recent Al Summit. One of our representatives, manning the pavilion, was ill-informed. 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. We request your kind understanding as there was no institutional intent to misrepresent this innovation.”

Amidst all of this, an X user shared a collage comparing an advanced fighter jet developed by a Chinese university to a thermocol-made drone prototype by Galgotias’ students. A viral video shows journalists mockingly holding the thermocol drone prototype and running around at the summit recording videos.

As the university’s name became a keyword in the news cycle, an old retracted study also came to the forefront. The university faced trolling for publishing a paper titled, “Corona Virus Killed by Sound Vibrations Produced by Thali or Ghanti: A Potential Hypothesis,” in March-August 2020 issue of Journal of Molecular Pharmaceuticals and Regulatory Affairs. As per retraction watch, the date of retraction is not available.

In an anonymous interview to a digital media platform, a Galgotias alumnus confessed wanting to scrape the university name off his resume because he felt embarrassed after the incident. Students from the university were seen posting a creative on social media which read “We stand with Galgotias. Not defined by one incident, defined by thousands of dreams’, which speculated as a PR campaign by the university faced trolling too.

The negativity on social media, however, did throw the focus on the capabilities of India in robotics, which is the frontier in AI. While China is now developing humanoid robots that they proudly showcase to visiting foreign leaders, India’s progress is in the shadows. But it’s not all gloom and doom, says Kalyan Mangalapalli, who has sketched a credible way forward for India building on its formidable strength in human capital.