Bill Gates withdraws from India AI summit amid Epstein fallout
Bill Gates pulled out of India’s AI Impact Summit hours before his scheduled keynote address on Thursday, the Gates Foundation said, after the Microsoft founder was named in the Epstein files.
“After careful consideration, and to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit’s key priorities, Mr Gates will not be delivering his keynote address,” the foundation said in a statement.
“The Gates Foundation remains fully committed to our work in India to advance our shared health and development goals,” it said.
The Gates Foundation said Ankur Vora, the president of its Africa and India offices would speak instead.
Gates’ cancellation comes after the US Department of Justice released emails last month that included communication between late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the Gates Foundation’s staff.
Gates this month said he regrets “every minute” he spent with Jeffrey Epstein, as his former wife Melinda said he still had questions to answer over his relationship with the late convicted sexual offender.
In a draft email among the documents, Epstein alleged Gates engaged in extramarital affairs. Gates has said the relationship was confined to philanthropy-related discussions and that it was a mistake for him to meet Epstein.
“Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise,” Gates said in an interview. “That email was never sent. The email is false,” he said. “I don’t know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?”
Gates’s spokesperson issued a similar denial after the fresh cache of millions of files related to the investigation into Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, were released.
“The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,” the spokesperson said.
Melinda French said that the document dump brought back “memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage”.
“Whatever questions remain there of what — I can’t even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband. They need to answer to those things, not me.”
The couple divorced in 2021.
The pullback deals another blow to a flagship event already marred by organisational lapses, a robot bungle, and delegate complaints over traffic disruptions.
Gates’ absence was followed by another high-profile cancellation by Nvidia’s Jensen Huang. The summit exhibition halls were shut to the public on Thursday in a surprise move that led to more anger among attendees.
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.