Bill Gates to skip India AI Impact Summit keynote address

Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder, will not deliver the keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit on Thursday (February 19), to ensure the “focus remains on the AI Summit's key priorities”, the Gates Foundation said in a statement.

Ankur Vora to represent Gates Foundation

The Gates Foundation, in a post on X, further stated that it will be represented at the India AI Impact Summit by Ankur Vora, President of the Africa and India Offices, who will address the summit later in the day.

“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 Gates Foundation will be represented by Ankur Vora, President of Africa and India Offices, who will speak later today at the Summit,” the statement said.

“The Gates Foundation remains fully committed to our work in India to advance our shared health and development goals,” it added.

Bill Gates mentioned in Epstein files

Bill Gates was mentioned in the tranche of Epstein files released by the US Justice Department last month.

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In a draft email contained in the documents, Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sexual offender who died by suicide in a US prison in 2019, alleged that Gates had engaged in extramarital affairs. Epstein wrote that his association with Gates ranged from "helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts with married women,” reported NDTV.

Gates has since spoken publicly about his past interactions with Epstein, saying he regrets the time he spent with him.

How Bill Gates reacted

"Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise," he told 9News Australia this month.

Addressing the draft email, Gates said, "That email was never sent. The email is false." He added, "I don't know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?"

Gates said he first met Epstein in 2011 and had several dinners with him over three years. He said he never visited Epstein’s Caribbean island and denied having relations with women in connection with him.

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"The focus was always, he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health. In retrospect, that was a dead end," he said.

A spokesperson for Gates issued a statement after the latest cache of millions of documents tied to the Epstein investigation was made public.

"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.