Fact Check: Is Bill Gates attending AI Summit in Delhi? Here’s what Gates Foundation said
India AI Impact Summit: Gates Foundation chairman Bill Gates will attend the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi and deliver the keynote address as planned, a spokesperson for the foundation told Mint on Tuesday, Feb. 17, denying earlier reports that he would skip the event.
Bill Gates is among the tech executives, industry leaders, policymakers, founders and technologists on the summit’s official website, and the event will be held from February 16-20. But his name did not appear on the website on Tuesday, fueling speculation about his involvement.
Earlier in the day, there were numerous media reports claiming that Bill Gates would not attend the summit, citing officials. Some, including Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi, shared screenshots suggesting that Gates’ name had been removed from the ‘Key Participants (Visionaries on the Global Stage)’ section on the Summit website. Reports suggested that the alleged decision was made after Gates’ name was mentioned in newly released files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Although his name was on the website’s list of ‘Notable Contributors’ until Monday, it was not there on Tuesday, confirming the speculations. When contacted, a spokesperson for the Gates Foundation told Mint that “media reports claiming that Bill Gates will not attend the AI Impact Summit are false.”
“He is attending as planned and will deliver the keynote address as planned,” the foundation said.
Chaturved even thanked the event’s host, the Ministry of Electronics and Informatics, for removing Bill Gates’ name from the list.
India AI Impact Summit
Bill Gates is among the global technology leaders attending the AI Impact summit, which started in Delhi on Monday.
Bill Gates has not been accused of misconduct by any of Epstein’s victims. However, the records released by the US Department of Justice include Epstein’s claim that Gates had a sexually transmitted disease. A spokesman for Gates called the claim “absolutely ridiculous.”
The uncertainty surrounding Bill Gates’ presence emerged just days after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he would no longer travel to India for the summit. Huang was announced as one of the most interesting names of the event. Although Nvidia did not provide a reason for the change, some speculation attributed its withdrawal to Gates’ expected presence at the summit.
Bill Gates arrived in Andhra Pradesh on Monday, where he met senior leaders including Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
