Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has offered a simpler explanation for one of the most talked-about moments from the India AI Impact Summit earlier this year, where he and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were seen refusing to hold hands on stage.

The moment had gone viral, fuelling speculation about the rivalry between the two artificial intelligence companies and the personal equation between their top executives. But Amodei, in an interview with Bloomberg, said the episode had less to do with corporate drama and more to do with confusion on stage.

“The summit was extremely disorganised,” Amodei told Bloomberg. “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.”

Amodei added that he was not specifically criticising India, saying such events involving heads of state often descend into confusion. “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.

He also recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi being on stage when the instruction was given. “There was like, you know, Narendra Modi up there suddenly telling everyone to like, suddenly telling everyone to hold hands,” Amodei said.

The remarks come amid continuing interest in the rivalry between Anthropic and OpenAI, two of the most closely watched companies in the global AI race. Amodei, his sister Daniela Amodei and several others left OpenAI in 2021 to start Anthropic, which has since positioned itself as an AI company focused heavily on safety.

During the interview, Amodei also spoke more directly about why he left OpenAI. He said disagreements over safety alone were not enough to trigger the split.

“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 made the difference, according to Amodei, was trust. “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,” he said.

Amodei said he was “completely at peace” with the decision to part ways. “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 said, adding that the market and public opinion would ultimately decide.