How Modi’s AI handholding moment backfired as Sam and Dario refused to play along

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday invited leaders of some of the top artificial intelligence companies to gather on stage as part of a commitment to build more “inclusive and multilingual” AI around the world.

And they did. But what caught some of the audience’s attention, and later went viral on social media, was an awkward interaction between two rival tech leaders: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

Modi, host of the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, clasped hands with those closest to him — Altman to his left and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to his right — and beckoned all 13 tech leaders to lift their hands up in a chain, like theater actors at the end of a show.

Everyone was holding hands except........

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