Bill Gates Drops Opening Address at India AI Summit to Keep Focus on Agenda

Overview

• Bill Gates withdrew from delivering Thursday’s opening speech at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, according to a statement from the Gates Foundation.
• The foundation said the president of its Africa and India offices, Ankur Vora, will attend in Gates’s place.
• U.S. Justice Department materials related to Jeffrey Epstein recently released to the public reference Gates and contain allegations attributed to Epstein that have not been independently verified, which Gates rejects.
• Gates has said he regrets meeting Epstein and recently apologized, stating he “regrets every minute” of those interactions and that discussions were limited to philanthropy.
• The summit, which centers on AI governance and features leaders including India’s Narendra Modi and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has faced reported organizational issues highlighted by Reuters, including robot malfunctions and VIP-related traffic disruptions.