The inspiration advised Fortune that it will likely be represented by Ankur Vora, President of its Africa and India Places of work, on the summit, and stated it “remains fully committed to our work in India to advance our shared health and development goals.”
Gates’ absence is the newest hiccup for the high-profile summit. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang additionally cancelled his look days earlier than he was scheduled to talk, with Nvidia’s South Asia managing director Vishal Dhupar citing sickness as the explanation. The corporate advised Fortune it had requested senior government Jay Puri to guide its delegation on the summit in Huang’s place.
The occasion, which has been billed as the primary main AI discussion board within the World South, was additionally criticized by delegates and audio system for organizational chaos and poor communication. The Delhi visitors has additionally been troublesome to navigate, inflicting aspect occasions across the metropolis to begin late and, a minimum of in a single case, a important speaker to overlook an occasion completely.
The town itself has been thrown into chaos by the scores of high-profile politicians and enterprise leaders on the town. Roads have been shut for “VIP movement,” leaving many delegates and locals stranded—some attendees described strolling miles via Delhi to get out of the convention, with no taxis out there and no shuttle companies in place.
On Thursday, attendees stated the exhibition and important speaker halls had been shut to the general public with out warning, leaving many caught outdoors the occasion. On the identical time, delegates stated the principle corridor, the place figures like Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis are giving keynotes, was lower than half full.
The Summit additionally made headlines on Wednesday for ejecting Indian college Galgotias after a employees member offered a commercially out there Chinese language-made robotic canine as its personal creation. Authorities sources confirmed to Fortune that they’d requested the college to depart the premises.
