Bill Gates has cancelled his scheduled keynote at a major artificial intelligence summit in India, the Gates Foundation confirmed, following his name appearing in newly released Jeffrey 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 added.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leading technology executives are still expected to address the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Thursday, discussing the potential benefits and risks of artificial intelligence.
The foundation said the president of its Africa and India offices will deliver Gates’s speech instead.
Earlier this month, Gates expressed regret over his interactions with Epstein. “Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise,” Gates told 9News Australia.
The latest tranche of documents released by the US Justice Department includes emails between Epstein and numerous prominent figures, showing financial dealings, personal connections, and private correspondence. In one draft email, Epstein alleged that Gates had extramarital affairs and claimed he assisted Gates with “consequences of sex with Russian girls” and “illicit trysts with married women.”
Gates has denied the allegations, stating: “That email was never sent. The email is false. I don’t know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?” A spokesperson for Gates similarly said the documents “demonstrate Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame.”
Melinda French Gates, Gates’s ex-wife, told US National Public Radio that the release of the files brought back “memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage” and said remaining questions regarding Epstein are for Gates and others directly involved. The couple divorced in 2021.
The mention of someone in the Epstein files does not, on its own, indicate wrongdoing. Gates’s withdrawal from the AI summit reflects the ongoing sensitivity surrounding the documents and the global attention they have drawn.
