India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) takes a gaggle picture with AI firm leaders together with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (C) and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei (R) on the AI Influence Summit in New Delhi on February 19, 2026.
Ludovic Marin | Afp | Getty Photographs
OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei had a clumsy second on Thursday as they selected to not maintain palms throughout a gaggle picture of political and tech leaders.
They have been on stage on the India AI Influence Summit, alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, amongst others. Each had been keynote audio system.
Modi had lifted Altman and Pichai’s palms earlier than an applauding crowd, with others following swimsuit. Nevertheless, Altman and Amodei, who have been subsequent to one another, raised their fists as a substitute of holding palms with each other.
It comes as competitors intensifies between ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Claude maker Anthropic, with each vying for his or her fashions to grow to be the default alternative for shoppers globally.
The businesses have additionally just lately traded pictures over the potential use of adverts in AI fashions.
The picture of Altman and Amodei opting out of holding palms shortly made the rounds on social media.
Siddharth Bhatia, cofounder of AI startup Puch AI, posted on X: “When AGI? The day Dario and Sam maintain palms.”
Justine Moore, an investing companion at Andreesen Horowitz, shared an image with the phrases: “Whenever you’re pressured to do a gaggle challenge along with your opp.”
Final month, Anthropic launched Tremendous Bowl commercials that poked enjoyable at OpenAI’s plan to start testing ads at no cost customers and ChatGPT Go subscribers within the U.S.
Altman known as the adverts “clearly dishonest,” saying: “I suppose it is on model for Anthropic doublespeak to make use of a misleading advert to critique theoretical misleading adverts that are not actual, however a Tremendous Bowl advert shouldn’t be the place I’d anticipate it.”
Anthropic’s chief buyer officer, Paul Smith, later advised CNBC that it was targeted on rising its enterprise relatively than making “flashy headlines,” in a veiled swipe at OpenAI.
Talking on the summit after the picture, Altman advised CNBC: “We nonetheless have some work to do to determine the precise advert format that is going to work finest.”
Anthropic was based in 2021 by a gaggle of former OpenAI workers and researchers, together with Amodei, who left the corporate after disagreements over its route. The corporate has marketed itself as a “safety-first” different.
OpenAI and Anthropic have since raised billions of {dollars} of capital as they’ve competed for customers, enterprise prospects and market share.
Throughout his speech on the summit on Thursday, Amodei mentioned the “critical dangers” related to AI, together with the autonomous conduct of AI techniques, their potential misuse by people and governments, and the potential for financial displacement.
Throughout his speech, Altman argued that the business’s understanding of AI security ought to embrace “societal resilience,” including: “We consider no AI lab can ship a superb future on their very own.”
