So, somewhere out there, there's a photographer at India's AI Summit having the worst day of their career. Yup, the AI world just had one of those awkward days
First up: Sam Altman (OpenAI) and Dario Amodei (Anthropic) ran into each other at India’s massive AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. And instead of a cool high-five, we got a moment so awkward it basically broke the internet. Imagine two geniuses trying to decide if they should hold or shake hands, then doing... neither.
The Story: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asked the executives on stage to join hands and raise them together in a show of global AI solidarity. A wholesome moment, right?
Wrong. Standing right next to Sam was Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic and Sam’s former VP of Research who left OpenAI in 2021 after a legendary falling out over safety. Instead of holding hands, the two rivals looked like they would rather touch a hot stove. They both awkwardly raised clenched fists into the air, missing each other's hands by a mile.
Altman later told reporters he was simply "confused" by the request. But the internet knows a "we aren't friends" vibe when it sees one.
But hey, while they were avoiding physical contact, both CEOs were busy opening their wallets. The rivalry between these two labs recently went full Super Bowl after Anthropic ran ads taking shots at OpenAI's "deceptive" advertising plans. Now, they’re both fighting for the same billion users in India.
OpenAI’s Play: Sam announced two brand new offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru and a massive partnership with TCS (Tata Consultancy Services). They’re building 100MW of AI data center capacity with an option to scale to 1GW. OpenAI will also provide new tools aimed at scaling AI skills in higher education
Anthropic’s Counter: Dario opened a Bengaluru office of his own and partnered with Infosys to deploy "agentic" AI solutions across telecommunications and finance.
But while the CEOs were busy being socially awkward, Google was busy being a total nerd. They just dropped Gemini 3.1 Pro, and it is absolutely crushing benchmarks.
It achieved a verified score of 77.1% on ARC-AGI-2, which is a benchmark specifically designed to measure a model's ability to solve entirely new logic patterns. For context, that is more than double the reasoning performance of the previous version. And according to other reports it's now leading on 7 major benchmarks. It's basically the kid in class who finishes the 100-page test in two minutes and gets an A+++.
Why does all of this matter beyond the drama?
Because India represents over a billion potential users and a massive government-backed ecosystem for AI at scale.
Every lab planting a flag there is doing more than just chasing revenue; they are shaping which AI tools billions of people will use in their daily lives. Whether it is students, factory workers, or doctors, the winner of the "India Race" might just win the global AI war.
The stakes couldn't be higher, and apparently, neither could the tension.
The lesson? If you’re gonna change the world, you might also need to master your facial expressions. 😅
Seriously, learn how to swallow the shade, perfect the “great to see you!” handshake, and deploy that Oscar-worthy smile when your rival walks in. Because saving humanity is one thing… surviving high-profile group photos without a scandal is another.
