Coke and Pepsi managed it

Edison and Tesla managed it. Gates and Jobs managed it. Coke and Pepsi manage it every single day. Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, custodians of humanity's future, could not hold hands.

Here's what happened.

Prime Minister Modi hosted 13 AI leaders in New Delhi last week for India's AI Impact Summit.

The closing moment: Modi clasps Altman's hand to his left, gestures for everyone to form a human chain.

Thirteen grown adults, on a stage, in front of cameras.

Eleven of them figured it out immediately.

Altman and Amodei, standing directly next to each other, spent several visible seconds in active avoidance before both independently settled on the fist-bump-into-nothing.
You know the one.

Altman's explanation to Indian media: "I was confused."

Sure. Fine. Moving on.

What makes this specifically an India story is worth noting.

Prime Minister Modi didn't organize this summit for symbolism alone.

India is making serious bets on AI, partnering with these exact companies, opening its market, its data, its 1.4 billion users to this ecosystem.

The handholding moment was designed to signal: these people are aligned, you can trust this.

What we got instead was a live demonstration of how thin that alignment actually runs.

And look, nobody is asking Altman and Amodei to become friends.

The rivalry is real, the history is complicated, and competitive tension isn't inherently bad.

But there is something quietly telling about the fact that two people who give speeches about AI benefiting all of humanity couldn't manage three seconds of basic civility on a global stage.

The Hatfields and McCoys eventually stopped shooting each other.
Just saying.