OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei recently encountered an awkward moment on Thursday as both the AI-based tech giant company owners avoided holding hands during a group photo of political and tech leaders.
During the India AI Impact Summit, when everyone was standing alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, among others on stage linked arms for the ceremonial shot, but Altman and Dario avoided each other.
Indian Prime Minister Modi lifted Altman and Pichai's hands before an applauding crowd, followed by the suit. However, Altman and Amodei chose to raise their fists rather than holding hands, displaying heated rivalry between both of them.
The moment comes amid increasing competition between both the tech giants.
Shortly after the moment went viral, several rumours have been ignited across social media, guessing the cause behind this action.
Justine Moore, an investing partner at Andreesen Horowitz, shared the image, stating, "When you're forced to do a group project with your opp."
In January, Anthropic unveiled Super Bowl commercials that poked fun at OpenAI's plan to initiate experimenting ads for free users and ChatGPT Go subscribers across the US.
Altman called the ads, "clearly dishonest," saying: "I guess it's on brand for Anthropic doublespeak to use a deceptive ad to critique theoretical deceptive ads that aren't real, but a Super Bowl ad is not where I would expect it."
For those unaware, Anthropic was founded in 2021 by a group of former OpenAI researchers, including Amodei, who departed from their company following several disagreements. The company has marketed itself as a "safety-first" alternative.
Since then, both companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic have raised billions of dollars of capital as they have been involved in a heated competition for users, enterprise customers and market share.
