There was an awkward moment on the stage of the Indian AI Summit this morning when the CEOs of rival AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic refused to hold hands for a group photo.
There was an awkward moment at the India AI Summit this morning when the CEOs of rival AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic refused to hold hands for a group photo. This embarrassment was caught on camera and has since become the butt of many jokes on social media.
Although the moment went viral, the embarrassment wasn’t entirely unexpected. Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei resigned from OpenAI in 2021 due to disagreements with Sam Altman.
Here’s what happened at the AI Summit
Following the keynote address at the Indian AI Impact Summit this morning, a group of senior technology leaders took to the stage to take a photo with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The group consists of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Meta AI head Alexander Wang, among others.
As soon as he stepped on stage, PM Modi held the hands of the two CEOs standing on either side of him – Sundar Pichai and Sam Altman – Encourage them to raise their hands to take a photo.
The awkwardness became palpable when OpenAI’s Sam Altman and his other side’s CEO, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, refused to hold hands. Instead, they both raised their fists in the air.
The moment did not go unnoticed on social media, and quickly became a trending topic on X.
Rivalry between OpenAI and Anthropy
Today, OpenAI and Anthropic are among the most well-known names in AI, but they represent slightly different approaches to building technology. OpenAI is known for moving quickly and making AI tools like ChatGPT widely available to the public. Meanwhile, Anthropic claims to have a stronger focus on safety and careful behavior, especially through its pioneering chatbot Cloud.
What Anthropic CEO said
Dario Amodei — who was vice president of research at OpenAI — left the company in early 2021 to co-found Anthropic with his sister and several other senior researchers at OpenAI. He walked away from OpenAI after becoming increasingly concerned about the direction the organization was taking.
In a 2023 interview with Fortune, Amodei confirmed that he left OpenAI due to directional differences. “You needed something else besides just scaling the models, which was compatibility or security. You don’t tell the models what their values are just by pouring more computing into them,” he said.
Sania Jain is Assistant Editor at Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience covering offbeat stories that speak to everyday experience — from viral videos to human interest versions that spark conversation. Her interests span across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment, and world affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sania spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds a BA in English Literature from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a Master’s degree in Journalism from Xavier Institute of Communication, Mumbai. Sanya has a keen eye for spotting emerging trends and searching for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first to, for example, cover Narayana Murthy’s remark about 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She feels just as comfortable writing about business leaders as she does about the common man, issues of national importance and memes that entertain social media. Sania enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers, and entrepreneurs to turn everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she’s not working, Sanya can be found sitting with a good book. She was born and raised in Lucknow, and has spent the last several years in Delhi. She has a keen interest in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read more
