IT minister apologises for Delhi AI summit ‘mismanagement’

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday apologised for the problems faced by those attending the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi, ANI reported.

The information technology minister said at a press conference that corrective measures had been taken after the difficulties faced by participants during the opening session on Monday, in order to ensure a smoother experience.

The summit began on Monday and will conclude on Friday.

Vaishnaw said that the event was the biggest artificial intelligence summit and that public response had been “phenomenal”. About 70,000 persons attended the event on Tuesday, he said.

“We can see the organisation is very smooth now,” Vaishnaw claimed. “If anybody faced any problems yesterday, we apologise for that.”

He said that a “war room” had been set up to address participants’ grievances and operational problems.

The event is being organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Several world leaders, including the presidents of France, Brazil, Estonia, the prime ministers of Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, Mauritius and Bhutan, and officials from major technology companies are scheduled to attend the event.

Several participants attending the event on Monday had complained on social media about the event having been mismanaged.

Congress criticises ‘utter chaos’

Earlier on Tuesday, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said that what could have been a showcase of India’s digital and artificial intelligence capabilities, had turned into “utter chaos and rank mismanagement by this ‘PR [public relations] hungry’ government”.

Founders, exhibitors and visitors faced “extreme distress due to the PM gate-crashing for a photo opportunity”, Kharge said on social media.

He listed exhibitors having been left without food and water, their products getting stolen, personal electronic devices being prohibited as among the reasons for the distress.

“It is extremely unfortunate that our country has to suffer this global embarrassment due to the incompetency of our own government,” Kharge said.