ISTANBUL
Bill Gates withdrew from an artificial intelligence summit in India on Thursday, hours before he was scheduled to deliver a keynote address, as renewed scrutiny over his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein resurfaced.
“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 said in a statement.
The foundation said it will instead be represented by Ankur Vora, president of its Africa and India offices, who is scheduled to speak later in the day.
It added that the foundation “remains fully committed” to its health and development work in India.
The decision follows the release of thousands of documents under the US Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Earlier this month, the Microsoft co-founder described it as “foolish” to have spent time with Epstein, who was found dead in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 and was convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution. Critics have described the sentence he received at the time as a “sweetheart deal.”
In an interview with 9News Australia, Gates, 70, denied wrongdoing and said he never visited Epstein’s private island, where child abuse and human trafficking were alleged to have taken place.
“It’s factually true that I was only at dinners. I never went to the island, I never met any women,” Gates said.
“It just reminds me that every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize I did that,” he added.
The weeklong summit in New Delhi, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has drawn representatives from more than 100 countries and is being promoted as the first major global AI gathering in the Global South.
Technology leaders including Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman and Dario Amodei attended, along with French President Emmanuel Macron, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.