I was confused: Sam Altman on awkward moment during AI summit unity hand-raise
India Today
While other tech titans held each other's hands as they held them high at the India AI Summit in New Delhi, Open AI chief Sam Altman and Anthropic's CEO Amodei Dario Amodei ended up with fists in the air.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman on Thursday acknowledged an awkward onstage moment with rival AI firm Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei during a group photograph with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
"I was sort of confused and didn’t know what I was supposed to do," Altman said hours later, recounting the incident at the summit's inaugural session.
The episode unfolded at Bharat Mandapam after the opening ceremony, when several global technology leaders joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a photo opportunity. Those on stage included Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta's Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar, and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis.
PM Modi stood at the center, flanked by Sundar Pichai on his right and Altman on his left. Amodei, a former OpenAI executive who later co-founded Anthropic, stood beside Altman. As cameras flashed, the Prime Minister and other leaders raised their clasped hands in a gesture of unity.
Altman and Amodei appeared momentarily unsure of how to respond. While others held hands and lifted them, the two eventually raised their fists instead. PM Modi joins hands with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others during the India AI Impact Summit 2026, in New Delhi.
"I didn't know what was happening. 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," Altman said.
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