NEW DELHI (AP) — What was supposed to be a unified display of global AI cooperation turned into an uncomfortable viral moment Thursday when two competing tech executives refused to join hands during a photo opportunity in India.
During the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought together 13 artificial intelligence company leaders on stage as part of his vision for more “inclusive and multilingual” AI development worldwide.
Modi grabbed the hands of those nearest to him — OpenAI’s Sam Altman on his left side and Google’s Sundar Pichai on his right — then encouraged the entire group to raise their joined hands together in a theatrical finale-style gesture.
While most participants linked hands as requested, Altman and Amodei, who were standing side by side, conspicuously avoided any physical contact for several uncomfortable seconds. Both men eventually raised their fists in the air instead of joining the human chain.
The tense moment rapidly spread across social media platforms, with many viewers interpreting it as a perfect representation of the fierce competition dominating the artificial intelligence sector, especially between OpenAI and Anthropic.
Altman later downplayed any significance behind the incident during a video conversation with Indian news organization Moneycontrol. “I didn’t know what was happening,” Altman explained. “I was sort of confused, like when (Modi) grabbed my hand and put it up, and I just wasn’t sure what we were supposed to be doing.”
Anthropic chose not to provide any statement regarding the situation.
The tension between these two AI companies stems from their shared history and current rivalry. Before establishing Anthropic, Amodei was employed at OpenAI until he departed in 2021 along with several colleagues, including his sister Daniela Amodei, to launch their competing venture.
Anthropic positioned itself as having a stronger commitment to developing safe artificial general intelligence — the advanced technology that both San Francisco-based companies are working to create.
OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, demonstrating the massive commercial possibilities of AI language models capable of composing emails, writing code, and responding to user questions. Anthropic introduced its competing product, Claude, the following year in 2023.
The companies’ contrasting philosophies became publicly apparent earlier this month when Anthropic broadcast Super Bowl advertisements that mocked OpenAI’s decision to incorporate digital advertisements into free and lower-cost ChatGPT versions.
Anthropic has focused its business strategy on selling Claude directly to corporate clients, while OpenAI has embraced advertising revenue to support the hundreds of millions of users accessing ChatGPT without charge. Altman responded to the Super Bowl commercials on social media, calling them misleading.
