Modi’s AI summit turns awkward as tech leaders Sam Altman and Dario Amodei dodge contact

Advertisement

Advertise with us

NEW DELHI (AP) — 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.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/02/2026 (186 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW DELHI (AP) — 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.

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman speaks at the AI Summit in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo)
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman speaks at the AI Summit in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo)

Everyone was holding hands except for Altman and Amodei, who stood next to each other but for several seconds awkwardly avoided hand contact. Both eventually put up their fists instead.

The interaction quickly became a visual symbol of the deep rivalries in the AI industry, particularly between OpenAI and Anthropic, though Altman sought to brush off any deeper meaning.

“I didn’t know what was happening,” Altman later said in a video interview with Indian media outlet Moneycontrol. He said he was “confused, like when (Modi) grabbed my hand and put it up, and I just wasn’t sure what we were supposed to be doing.”

Anthropic declined to comment.

The two AI developers have a history, one that predates the creation of OpenAI’s hit product, ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s competing chatbot Claude.

Amodei worked at OpenAI before he and a group that included his sister, Daniela Amodei, quit to form Anthropic in 2021. The newer company promised a clearer focus on the safety of the better-than-human technology called artificial general intelligence that both San Francisco firms aim to build.

OpenAI first released ChatGPT in late 2022, revealing the huge commercial potential of AI large language models that could help write emails and computer code and answer questions. Anthropic followed with its first version of Claude in 2023.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seventh left, poses for photographs with chief executive officers of various AI groups during the AI Summit in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (Indian Prime Minister's Office via AP)
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seventh left, poses for photographs with chief executive officers of various AI groups during the AI Summit in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (Indian Prime Minister's Office via AP)

Their different approaches spilled over into public debate earlier this month in the United States when Anthropic aired TV commercials during the Super Bowl that ridiculed OpenAI for the digital advertising it’s beginning to place in free and cheaper versions of ChatGPT.

While Anthropic has centered its revenue model on selling Claude to other businesses, OpenAI has opened the doors to ads as a way of making money from the hundreds of millions of consumers who get ChatGPT for free. Altman took to social media to criticize the TV commercials as dishonest.

——

O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Manitoba beginning to produce ‘elite-level golfers’: Kuntz

Mike McIntyre 4 minute read Preview

Manitoba beginning to produce ‘elite-level golfers’: Kuntz

Mike McIntyre 4 minute read Yesterday at 9:03 PM CDT

It may not have ended the way everyone wanted, but make no mistake: this was a banner week for local golfers.

Let’s start with Braxton Kuntz, who managed to qualify his way into the Manitoba Open and then found himself lurking near the top of the leaderboard after an opening round five-under 65. Although he didn’t finish as strong as he started — rounds of 72, 70 and then 76 followed — the 22-year-old proved he can hang with the pros on PGA Tour Americas.

“I think over the last couple of years I’ve been continually getting better and that’s been great to see,” Kuntz told the Free Press.

“I’ve been fortunate to compete against some great players and hold my own. This was another good learning experience for me, and I’m just going to take it and run with it. I’m sure I’m one of the youngest, if not the youngest, in this field, so I’ve got a long road ahead of me.”

Read
Yesterday at 9:03 PM CDT

Downtown Rudy’s restaurant announces closure

1 minute read Yesterday at 1:55 PM CDT

A downtown eatery has announced its closure.

Rudy's Eat and Drink, located on the main floor of the Manitoba Hydro building at 375 Graham Ave., posted on social media that the restaurant would be closing after "one last hurrah" on Friday, Aug. 21.

"With heavy hearts it is time to announce that Rudy’s will officially be closing its doors after an incredible 15 years," the post reads.

The post gave no reason for the closure. Rudy's and other restaurants in the building expressed concerns after an assault and resulting lockdown at Hydro Place in late January.

‘We got attacked’: Carney says retaliatory tariffs on U.S. to take effect next month

Catherine Morrison and David Baxter, The Canadian Press 8 minute read Preview

‘We got attacked’: Carney says retaliatory tariffs on U.S. to take effect next month

Catherine Morrison and David Baxter, The Canadian Press 8 minute read Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney says retaliatory tariffs will hit the U.S. starting next month after Canada walked away from what he called a "bad deal."

The U.S. introduced new 50 per cent tariffs on billions of dollars in Canadian exports on Saturday after trade talks failed.

"We got attacked," Carney told reporters on Parliament Hill Saturday when asked about the escalating trade war.

Carney suspended talks with the United States late Friday and summoned his negotiators back to Ottawa.

Read
Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026

Conservatives call on government to release U.S. trade offer details

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Conservatives call on government to release U.S. trade offer details

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 3:17 PM CDT

OTTAWA - Federal conservatives are calling on the government to release the full details of the trade offer from the United States that Canada rejected this week.

In a letter to Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Canada-U.S. relations critic Shuvaloy Majumdar said while his party supports the government's decision to reject the deal, Parliament is in the dark on what was on the table.

"If there was a draft text of any agreement that both governments have seen, please release it. The U.S. administration has seen it. Your government has seen it. Canadians deserve to see it," Majumdar wrote.

"Even after addressing Canadians and the media, the public and Members of Parliament still remain in the dark on your government's demands in negotiations with the Trump administration.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 3:17 PM CDT

The trolls inside the Conservative tent

David McLaughlin 5 minute read Preview

The trolls inside the Conservative tent

David McLaughlin 5 minute read Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026

The Conservative Party of Canada has a troll problem. And it’s coming from inside the tent.

Once, trolls existed only in imagination. They were figures of mythical proportion, big and small. They lived solitary lives under bridges, in caves, or forests. They were considered dim-witted and mean. Best avoided.

Today, they are real, unavoidable, and ubiquitous on social media. They are anything but solitary. There are tribes of them out there and tribal is how they think and post. As for dim-witted and mean, others can opine but they are uniformly mean and dismissive.

Mean to anyone who disagrees with their views. Dismissive of any view but their own. They distribute questionable, at best, facts and opinions grounded in hostility towards anything or anyone deemed disagreeable or heretical to their world view.

Read
Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026

Frustration mounts as drug raids sweep problems out of downtown, into West End

Scott Billeck 7 minute read Preview

Frustration mounts as drug raids sweep problems out of downtown, into West End

Scott Billeck 7 minute read Friday, Aug. 21, 2026

West End business owners say their neighbourhood has been under siege for months, and some believe downtown police drug sweeps have made things worse by pushing more street disorder in their direction — and pushing customers away.

Read
Friday, Aug. 21, 2026