Sam Altman and Dario Amodei refused to hold hands at an AI summit weeks after OpenAI and Anthropic clashed in a tense Super Bowl ad war | Fortune

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei exhibited awkward body language, seemingly refusing to hold hands during a photo opportunity with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India AI Impact Summit. This moment highlighted the increasingly strained relationship between the two leaders, who were once colleagues.

The tension follows a recent public conflict stemming from Anthropic's Super Bowl ad campaign, which indirectly criticized OpenAI's plan to introduce ads into ChatGPT by promoting its own model, Claude, as ad-free. Altman publicly responded, calling Anthropic's ads "clearly dishonest," though some marketing experts praised the strategy.

Amodei previously worked under Altman at OpenAI, playing a key role in developing GPT models, but left in 2021 to co-found Anthropic with a primary focus on AI safety alongside scaling capabilities. Despite reports that Amodei was approached to replace Altman as OpenAI CEO during the November 2023 turmoil, he declined. Anthropic has since grown into a major competitor, recently achieving a $380 billion valuation, underscoring the high-stakes rivalry between the two companies.

(Source：Fortune)