{"id":491350,"date":"2026-02-20T01:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491350\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T01:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:24:11","slug":"bill-gates-pulls-out-of-india-ai-summit-amid-epstein-files-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491350\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Gates pulls out of India AI summit amid Epstein files scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Gates has pulled out of India’s AI Impact Summit hours before his scheduled keynote address, as scrutiny over his ties to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein intensified following the release of US Justice Department emails.<\/p>\n

The abrupt withdrawal of Microsoft’s co-founder dealt a fresh blow to a flagship event already marred by organisational lapses, a robot row<\/a> and complaints of traffic chaos.<\/p>\n

The six-day event still notched more than US$200 billion ($284 billion) in investment pledges for AI infrastructure in India, including a US$110 billion ($156 billion) plan announced by Reliance \u200cIndustries on Thursday.<\/p>\n

India’s Tata Group also signed a partnership deal with OpenAI.<\/p>\n

Mr Gates’ cancellation follows the release of emails last month by the US Department of Justice that included communication between the late financier and convicted sex offender Epstein and the Gates Foundation’s staff.<\/p>\n

Millions more ‘Epstein files’ released by US government<\/a><\/p>\n

The US Department of Justice says it is releasing more than 3 million new documents from the “Epstein files”.<\/p>\n

The foundation said the billionaire will not deliver his address “to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit’s key priorities”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Only days ago, the foundation had dismissed rumours of his \u200cabsence and insisted he was on track to attend.<\/p>\n

The foundation’s chief strategy officer and Africa and India chief, Ankur Vora, spoke instead of Mr Gates.<\/p>\n

A representative for the philanthropic organisation, founded by Mr Gates and his then-wife in 2000, did not respond to a Reuters query on whether the withdrawal was linked to scrutiny over the Epstein files.<\/p>\n

Mr Gates has said the relationship was confined to philanthropy-related discussions and that it was a mistake \u200cfor him<\/a> to meet the sex offender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Jensen<\/p>\n

Nvidia head Jensen Huang also pulled out of the AI Impact Summit. (Reuters: Steve Marcus, file)<\/p>\n

He was among the top tech leaders scheduled to attend the event, alongside Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Gates’ absence followed another high-profile cancellation by Nvidia’s Jensen Huang earlier on Saturday, which added to a difficult opening for a summit billed as the first major AI forum in the Global South, where India has sought to position itself as a leading voice in worldwide AI governance.<\/p>\n

Modi address, AI commitments<\/p>\n

In his keynote address, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for ensuring children’s safety on AI platforms, speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"Narendra<\/p>\n

Opposition parties argue Narendra Modi’s government has poorly managed the \u200cglobal summit. (AP: Indian Prime Minister’s Office)<\/p>\n

“We must be even more vigilant about children’s safety,” Mr Modi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Just as a school syllabus is curated, the AI space should also be child and family-guided.”<\/p>\n

Shortly earlier, Mr Modi stood on stage with top AI executives and posed for \u2060photographs with their arms raised in a show of strength.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The photo shoot produced an awkward moment when Mr Altman and Mr Amodei, the chiefs of rival AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic, stood side by side on stage but did not hold hands, even though the other executives did.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

The symbolic unity pose was to mark the formal launch of the New Delhi Frontier AI Commitments, a set of voluntary principles adopted by leading AI companies at the summit to advance the inclusive, responsible development of frontier AI models.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“One hundred million people in India now use ChatGPT each week,” Mr Altman told the gathering.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chaos and traffic snarls<\/p>\n

Despite the investment successes, India’s first major AI summit has been marred by organisational lapses that have \u200cleft attendees shocked and angry over what they described as a \u2060lack of planning by the Indian government.<\/p>\n

The summit exhibition halls were shut to the public on Thursday in a surprise move that sparked further anger among participating companies that had set up stalls and pavilions.<\/p>\n

The venue compound was largely deserted after three days of large crowds at the event.<\/p>\n

\"Vehicles<\/p>\n

A traffic jam near Bharat Mandapam, one of the venues of the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. (Reuters: Bhawika Chhabra)<\/p>\n

Indian university Galgotias was asked to vacate its stall after a staff member presented a commercially available robotic dog made in China as its own creation<\/a>, sparking a public uproar.<\/p>\n

Police \u2060repeatedly shut roads to give preference to VIP movement at the summit, creating chaos in the city of 20 million people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Indian government has apologised for the inconvenience caused to attendees in the initial days.<\/p>\n

Opposition parties attacked the government and \u200cthe prime minister for poorly managing the \u200cglobal summit.<\/p>\n

“The whole summit is, sorry was, meant for researchers, founders, builders who are grinding in the field every day. Instead we get treated like we don’t matter, blocked for hours so some minister or official can pass through,” Jay Gala, a Microsoft researcher, said on social media website X.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bill Gates has pulled out of India’s AI Impact Summit hours before his scheduled keynote address, as scrutiny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,19415,40421,143651,136528,1209,5634,2577,41887,5044,3146,13961,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-491350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-bill-gates","14":"tag-delhi","15":"tag-epstein-files","16":"tag-gates-foundation","17":"tag-india","18":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","19":"tag-microsoft","20":"tag-narendra-modi","21":"tag-openai","22":"tag-robot","23":"tag-sam-altman","24":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}