In a scathing critique that’s sparking debates across social media, filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri has dissected the recent Galgotias University robot dog fiasco at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi. What was paraded as a homegrown triumph in robotics turned out to be a Chinese import from Unitree Robotics, prompting the university to dismantle the display and issue an apology.
Agnihotri didn’t mince words, calling it not just a blunder but a glaring symptom of deeper rot in India’s education and innovation ecosystem. ‘This isn’t about the robot; it’s about our mindset,’ he posted, highlighting how importing tech is fine but passing it off as indigenous screams of insecurity and a rush to appear cutting-edge.
He zoomed in on private universities, often entangled in political and business webs, where education morphs into a revenue stream, campuses into event venues, and genuine research takes a backseat to flashy branding. AI, a transformative force reshaping civilizations, is being treated like mere festival decor or brochure fluff.
Drawing from history, Agnihotri evoked the glory of ancient Nalanda, Takshashila, and Vikramshila, magnets for global scholars fostering debate, scholarships, and fearless inquiry. Today, he laments, we’re torching credibility, intellectual honesty, and imagination. While the US and China surge ahead with massive compute budgets and research autonomy in foundational AI models, India lags, debating frameworks instead of building them.
Who is the modern ‘Khilji’?’ Agnihotri asked provocatively—foreign invaders or our own system that prefers spectacle over scrutiny? If India remains a mere consumer of others’ intelligence in the AI era, we’ll be left behind. His solutions are bold: sever universities from politics, legally safeguard academic freedom, integrate AI into governance, health, agriculture, and education. The first bus may have been missed, but the race is on—time for real action, not theater.