New Delhi: Hours after presenting a Chinese robot as their own, the Greater Noida-based Galgotias University made a U-turn following immediate backlash on X, saying that it had “never claimed to have built the device”.
In a statement issued Tuesday evening, the university said that the Unitree Robodog was bought to help students expand their capabilities.
This came shortly after a professor from the university, attending the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, presented the Unitree Robodog as ‘Orion’ in an interview with a DD News reporter.
“This is Orion. This has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at the Galgotias University,” Professor Neha Singh said, adding that Galgotias was the “first private university investing more than Rs 350 crore in Artificial Intelligence”, with a dedicated “data science and AI block on the campus”.
As the video of the interview went viral, users on X quickly pointed out that the Unitree Go2 robot dog was developed by Unitree Robotics and was commercially available for $2,800.
Following the backlash, the university issued a statement on X, saying it had “recently acquired Robodog from Unitree”.
“It is not merely a machine on display — it is a classroom in motion. Our students are experimenting with it, testing its limits, and in the process, expanding their own knowledge,” it said.
“Let us be clear—Galgotias has not built this robodog, neither have we claimed. But what we are building are minds that will soon design, engineer and manufacture such technologies right here in Bharat,” it added.
The university said that they have sourced cutting-edge technologies from across the world, including the US, China and Singapore, to ensure that their students are exposed to global tech.
In another late-night statement on X, the university posted: “We at Galgotias, faculty and students, are deeply pained by the propaganda campaign against our university…. Spreading negativity can harm the morale of students, who are working hard to innovate, learn, and build their skills using global technologies.”
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Past controversies
This is not the first time that the Greater Noida-based university has found itself at the centre of a controversy.
In 2024, it was heavily trolled on social media after a group of its students, who were part of a protest against the Congress party’s manifesto in Delhi, were unable to articulate the reasons for the protest during an interview.
In 2020, during the pandemic, a research scholar from the university also came under the scanner online after his research study claimed that the “Corona virus killed by the sound vibrations produced by Thali or Ghanti: A potential hypothesis”.
Doctors and scientists criticised the paper for being unscientific and blamed the university for encouraging the spread of a false narrative during a global health crisis.