'India's AI Summit Was Extremely Disorganised': Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Speaks Out About Not Shaking Hands With Sam Altman

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's refusal to hold hands on stage at India's AI Summit made headlines earlier this year. The moment went viral and there were several theories made about the rivalry. And now, Amodei has finally spoken about it. He has a simple explanation, and according to him, the event was a mess.

"The summit was extremely disorganised," Amodei told Bloomberg's Emily Chang in an interview. "We all came up at the last minute and they like changed the order in which we were standing, and then like, they took a picture of us and then they ordered us all to like, hold hands."

Dario Amodei on the AI Summit in New Delhi, 'I am not saying anything bad about India in particular'

He was diplomatic enough to note he wasn't singling India out. "I am not saying anything bad about India in particular, but like all of these kind of international type summits that have like heads of state are like super disorganised," he said. The kicker? Narendra Modi was on stage, and he was the one issuing the directive. "There was like, you know, Narendra Modi up there suddenly telling everyone to like, suddenly telling everyone to hold hands."

Dario Amodei on leaving OpenAI, "When you can't trust someone"

The interview also drew out Amodei's most direct comments yet on why he, along with his sister Daniela and a cohort of colleagues, left OpenAI to found Anthropic.

He was careful to distinguish between legitimate disagreement and something more fundamental. "There are many valid disagreements to be had on safety. We certainly had some of those disagreements with them, but that alone is not sufficient to leave," he said.

What pushed him over the edge was something harder to fix than a policy dispute. "When you feel that you can't trust someone, when you feel that their values are not what they say they are, when you feel that they're not honest, when you feel that they're not in it for the reasons that they say, when you see disturbing patterns of behavior and dishonesty, that makes it very hard to continue to work with a company."

His conclusion was pragmatic rather than bitter. "Why argue with someone when you don't have the same vision and you don't trust them? The way to resolve it is you go off and do your thing. They go off and do their thing." He added that he is 'completely at peace' with the split, and that the market and public opinion would be the ultimate judge.