Sam Altman on awkward moment with Dario Amodei: 'I was confused'

After an awkward onstage moment with rival AI firm Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei at the India AI Impact Summit, Sam Altman, the tech entrepreneur leading OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, said on Thursday (February 19) that he was confused.

"I was sort of confused and didn't know what I was supposed to do," Altman said.

What happened

After the inaugural session of the summit, Altman and Amodei, who run two of the world's most closely watched AI companies, along with other tech moguls, went on stage for a group photograph with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta's Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar, and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis were among other tech leaders on the stage for the photo-op.

The Prime Minister was at the centre with Pichai on his right and Altman on his left. Amodei, who previously worked at OpenAI but eventually left to co-found Anthropic, was standing next to Altman.

As cameras flashed, the Prime Minister and others held their hands up, while Altman and Amodei appeared briefly unsure whether to shake hands, clasp arms, throw their arms up in the air, or simply pose. While everyone else held each other's hands as they held them high, the two ended up with clasped fists in the air.

‘Modi grabbed my hand’

"I didn't know what was happening," Altman said when asked about the awkward moment. "I was sort of confused, like (Prime Minister) Modi grabbed my hand and put it up, and I just wasn't sure what we were supposed to be doing. I thought it was the open clock."

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Altman, 40, and Amodei, three years older than him, worked together at OpenAI till 2019.

Amodei, his sister Daniela, along with other senior OpenAI researchers, left the company in 2020 due to disagreements with Altman and the board over the company's direction. The Amodei siblings subsequently founded Anthropic.

After parting ways, Altman and Amodei have often differed on the approach to AI.

Amodei was reportedly approached by the OpenAI board after it abruptly ousted Altman on November 17, 2023. Amodei had declined the offer, and Altman was brought back to lead the company just days later after a dramatic internal battle.

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The competition between the two AI companies has since intensified into an outright commercial battle, with Anthropic running satirical Super Bowl ads this year mocking OpenAI's plans to add advertising to ChatGPT.

(With agency inputs)