New Delhi: At the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, the chief of rival AI developer Anthropic, shared an awkward moment when, instead of holding hands with other tech leaders during a group photo with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they raised their fists in the air.
The brief interaction took place on stage at the five-day AI Impact Summit — hosted at Bharat Mandapam from February 16 to 20 — where global leaders gathered to discuss the future of artificial intelligence. Prime Minister Modi stood at the centre of a lineup that included Sundar Pichai of Alphabet and other prominent tech executives. When Modi invited participants to link hands in a symbolic gesture of unity and raise their arms for cameras, Altman and Amodei instead opted for raised fists, sparking widespread attention online.
The gesture quickly circulated on social media and was widely interpreted as a visual symbol of the ongoing, high-profile rivalry between the two leaders. Altman and Amodei head some of the most closely watched AI companies in the world — OpenAI and Anthropic — and their relationship traces back to Amodei’s departure from OpenAI in 2021 to co-found Anthropic with a focus on AI safety. That past collaboration and subsequent competition have shaped how observers see moments like this one at the summit.
Asked later about the moment, Altman said he was “sort of confused” by the photo setup, noting uncertainty about what pose was expected as Modi lifted his hand, another sign of the light but telling nature of the exchange.
