Sam Altman and Dario Amodei don’t hold hands at India AI summit

OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei had an awkward moment on Thursday when they opted not to hold hands during a group photo featuring political and tech leaders.

They were on stage at the India AI Impact Summit along with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and others. Both were keynote speakers.

Modi raised the hands of Altman and Pichai in front of the applauding crowd, and the others followed suit. However, Altman and Amodei, who were side by side, raised their fists instead of holding hands with each other.

As competition between ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Claude maker Anthropic intensifies, both are vying to make their respective models the default choice for consumers around the world.

The companies also recently discussed the potential use of ads in artificial intelligence models.

The image of Altman and Amodei giving up holding hands quickly spread on social media.

Siddharth Bhatia, co-founder of AI startup Puch AI, posted on X: “When is AGI? The day Dario and Sam held hands.”

Justine Moore, investment partner at Andreesen Horowitz, shared a photo with the words: “When you have to do a group project with your counterpart.”

Last month, Anthropic releases Super Bowl ads teasing OpenAI’s plan to start testing ads for free users and ChatGPT Go subscribers in the US

Altman called the ads “clearly dishonest”, saying: “I guess it suits the brand for Anthropic to use a deceptive ad to criticize theoretical deceptive ads that are not real, but it’s not where I’d expect a Super Bowl ad.”

Paul Smith, Anthropic’s chief customer officer, later told CNBC that he was focused on growing his business rather than making what he euphemistically called “flashy headlines” at OpenAI.

Speaking at the summit after the photo, Altman told CNBC: “We still have some work to do to find exactly the ad format that will work best.”

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by a group of former OpenAI staff and researchers, including Amodei, who left the company after disagreements over its direction. The company marketed itself as a “safety first” alternative.

OpenAI and Anthropic have since raised billions of dollars in capital as they compete for users, enterprise customers and market share.

In his speech at the summit on Thursday, Amodei discussed the “serious risks” associated with AI, including the autonomous behavior of AI systems, their potential misuse by individuals and governments, and the potential for economic dislocation.

During his speech, Altman argued that the industry’s understanding of AI security should include “societal resilience” and added: “We believe that no AI lab can provide a good future on its own.”