Bill Gates has become a source of controversy at this week’s high-profile India AI Impact Summit, as speculation around his planned keynote address ultimately ended with his withdrawal at the last minute. 

The drama comes as the Microsoft co-founder receives public backlash for his past relationship with deceased financier and sex predator Jeffrey Epstein — with more details on the two men’s years of communications revealed in the Department of Justice’s file drop last month. 

The Gates Foundation India on Thursday said the billionaire would skip the address “[a]fter careful consideration, and to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit’s key priorities,” adding that he would be replaced by another foundation representative. 

A spokesperson for Gates told CNBC separately that while he has acknowledged meeting Epstein was a serious error in judgment, he “unequivocally denies any improper conduct related to Epstein and the horrible activities in which Epstein was involved.”

“Mr. Gates never visited Epstein’s island, never attended parties with him, and had no involvement in any illegal activities associated with Epstein,” the spokesperson said.

The official announcement capped a back-and-forth saga that began earlier this week when local Indian media pointed out that Gates’ name had been removed from some of the summit’s public-facing materials. 

Government sources later briefed the media that Gates was not expected to attend the event. However, the Gates Foundation issued a conflicting message on Wednesday, insisting that he was participating “as planned” before the recent reversal. 

Asked about the controversy on Tuesday, India’s IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters that Gates’ attendance would come down to “personal choices,” adding he “need not comment.” The summit organizers and the foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Gates’ absence.

The American tech leader turned philanthropist has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks following the release of millions of documents related to financier Jeffrey Epstein under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. 

The files included a draft email written to himself in which Epstein suggests that he had helped facilitate extramarital affairs and sexual encounters for Gates, amongst other references of the Microsoft co-founder.

In an interview with Australia’s 9News last month, Gates denied any wrongdoing, commenting in relation to new files, calling Epstein’s allegations “absolutely absurd and completely false.”

He emphasized that his interactions with Epstein were limited to dinners aimed at potential philanthropy discussions, adding that he “never went to the island” and “never met any women.”

The New Delhi AI Impact Summit, where Gates had been scheduled to speak, has seen participation from leading tech names such as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, besides a host of global leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

The Gates Foundation has invested in India across health and development, and has also backed projects related to AI.

The progress of Chinese tech companies across the entire stack is “remarkable,” OpenAI’s Sam Altman told CNBC, pointing to “many fields” including AI.

Altman’s comments come as China races against the U.S. to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) — where AI matches human capabilities — and roll out the technology across society.

Chinese progress is “amazingly fast,” he said. In some areas Chinese tech companies are near the frontier, while in others they lag behind, Altman added.

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The UK government is closing a “loophole” in new online safety legislation that will make AI chatbots subject to its requirement to combat illegal material or face fines or even being blocked.

After the country’s government staunchly criticized Elon Musk’s X over sexually explicit content created by its chatbot Grok, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced new measures that mean chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot will be included in his government’s Online Safety Act.

The platforms will be expected to comply with “illegal content duties” or “face the consequences of breaking the law,” the announcement said.

This comes after the European Commission investigated Musk’s X in January for spreading sexually explicit images of children and other individuals. Starmer led calls for Musk to put a stop to it.

Earlier, Ofcom, the UK’s media watchdog, began an investigation into X reportedly spreading sexually explicit images of children and other individuals.

“The action we took on Grok sent a clear message that no platform gets a free pass,” Starmer said, announcing the latest measures. “We are closing loopholes that put children at risk, and laying the groundwork for further action.”

Starmer gave a speech on Monday on the new powers, which extend to setting minimum age limits for social media platforms, restricting harmful features such as infinite scrolling, and limiting children’s use of AI chatbots and access to VPNs.

One measure announced would force social media companies to retain data after a child’s death, unless the online activity is clearly unrelated to the death.

“We are acting to protect children’s wellbeing and help parents to navigate the minefield of social media,” Starmer said.

Alex Brown, head of TMT at law firm Simmons & Simmons, said the announcement shows how the government is taking a different approach to regulating rapidly developing technology.

“Historically, our lawmakers have been reluctant to regulate the technology and have rather sought to regulate its use cases and for good reason,” Brown said in a statement to CNBC.

He said that regulations focused on specific technology can age quickly and risk missing aspects of its use. Generative AI is exposing the limits of the Online Safety Act, which focuses on “regulating services rather than technology,” Brown said.

He said Starmer’s latest announcement showed the UK government wanted to address the dangers “that arise from the design and behaviour of technologies themselves, not just from user‑generated content or platform features,” he added.

There’s been heightened scrutiny around children and teenagers’ access to social media in recent months, with lawmakers citing mental health and wellbeing harms. In December, Australia became the first country to implement a law banning teens under 16 from social media.

Australia’s ban forced apps like Alphabet’s YouTube, Meta’s Instagram, and ByteDance’s TikTok to have age-verification methods such as uploading IDs or bank details to prevent under-16s from making accounts.

Spain became the first European country to enforce a ban earlier this month, with France, Greece, Italy, Denmark, and Finland also considering similar proposals.

The UK government launched a consultation in January on banning social media for under-16s.

Additionally, the country’s House of Lords, an unelected upper legislative chamber, voted last month to amend the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to include a social media ban for under-16s.

The next phase will see the bill reviewed by parliament’s the House of Commons. Both houses have to agree on any changes before they pass into law.

Elon Musk’s xAI, which merged with SpaceX last week, is facing increased pressure from environmental and civil rights groups over pollution concerns, this time at the company’s facility in Southaven, Mississippi.

On Friday, the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice, on behalf of the NAACP, sent a notice of intent to sue xAI and subsidiary MZ Tech LLC, saying the company’s use of dozens of natural gas-burning turbines requires a federal permit, violates the Clean Air Act and harms nearby communities.

Pollution from the turbines, which xAI has also used in Memphis, Tennessee, for its Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 data centers, has been a major source of local contention for more than a year.

Plans for a third data center in Southaven, located about 20 miles from Memphis, were announced early this year, when Mississippi Republican Governor Tate Reeves said he expected the project to create “hundreds of permanent jobs throughout DeSoto County.”

Launched by Musk in 2023, xAI is trying to compete with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google in the booming generative AI market. On Feb. 2, Musk said SpaceX, his rocket maker and defense contractor, acquired xAI in a deal that valued the combined entity at $1.25 trillion.

Musk is banking on the area in and around Memphis as the foundation of his AI ambitions, and he’s been flouting environmental rules in order to develop as quickly as possible. Musk’s social network X, formerly Twitter, is also owned by xAI, which created the Grok AI chatbot and image generator.

XAI is currently under a myriad of government investigations in Europe, Asia and the U.S. after Grok enabled users to easily create and share deepfake porn, including explicit imagery depicting child sexual abuse.

Last year, residents in the majority-Black community of Boxtown in South Memphis testified at public hearings about a stench in the air, and the impact of worsening smog on their health caused by xAI’s use of natural gas turbines. Research by scientists at the University of Tennessee also found that xAI’s turbine use added to air pollution woes in the area.

Environmental advocates, including the NAACP, had previously said they would sue to stop xAI’s un-permitted use of the turbines in Memphis. But they stopped short of filing a legal complaint after Shelby County’s health department allowed xAI to treat the turbines as temporary, non-road engines, and issued permits for their use.

At the federal level, the EPA recently clarified gray areas of the law and said these turbines can’t be categorized as temporary non-road engines. Nonetheless, xAI has been using the turbines across state lines without obtaining federal permits.

XAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Noise pollution from the turbines has also been a source of local consternation. Jason Haley, a Southaven resident, told CNBC the turbines make headache-inducing noises around the clock that he can hear inside his home.

Haley is part of a group called Safe and Sound which documents the decibel levels, and is pressing local officials to stop xAI from making so much noise, especially overnight, with its turbines.

Mississippi officials will hold a public hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, for community members who wish to express their concerns about xAI’s expansion plans in the area. The hearing will focus on whether the state should give xAI permission to install and run 41 permanent turbines at its Southaven facility, Mississippi Today previously reported.

Similar community dynamics are playing out across the U.S. as tech giants rush to construct massive data centers, which can strain local energy and water supply and cause prices to increase.

In November, Microsoft ended efforts to build a data center in Wisconsin due to the community’s vocal opposition. Amazon also pulled out of plans for a data center in Arizona after community protests.

In terms of Musk’s Southaven project, Patrick Anderson, a senior attorney with SELC, said xAI “has to follow the law, just like any other company.”

“And when it flouts the Clean Air Act’s bedrock protections against unpermitted emissions, it puts the health and welfare of ordinary citizens at risk,” Anderson said in an email. “That’s why we intend to hold xAI accountable here.”

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Read the environmental groups’ notice of intent to sue xAI here: