OpenAI’s Sam Altman denies sexual abuse allegations made sister, Ann

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s sister, Ann Altman, filed a lawsuit on Monday, alleging that her brother sexually abused her recurrently between the years of 1997 and 2006.

The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court within the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges that the abuse took place on the family’s home in Clayton, Missouri, and started when Ann, who goes by Annie, was 3 and Sam was 12. The filing claims that the abusive activities took place “several times per week,” starting with oral sex and later involving penetration.

The lawsuit claims that “as a direct and proximate results of the foregoing acts of sexual assault,” the plaintiff has experienced “severe emotional distress, mental anguish, and depression, which is anticipated to proceed into the long run.”

The younger Altman has publicly made similar sexual assault allegations against her brother up to now on platforms like X, but that is the primary time she’s taken him to court. She’s being represented by Ryan Mahoney, whose Illinois-based firm makes a speciality of matters including sexual assault and harassment.

The lawsuit requests a jury trial and damages in excess of $75,000.

In a joint statement on X along with his mother, Connie, and his brothers Jack and Max, Sam Altman denied the allegations.

“Annie has made deeply hurtful and completely unfaithful claims about our family, and particularly Sam,” the statement said. “We have chosen not to reply publicly, out of respect for her privacy and our own. Nonetheless, she has now taken legal motion against Sam, and we feel now we have no alternative but to deal with this.”

Their response says that “all of those claims are utterly unfaithful,” adding that “this case causes immense pain to our entire family.” They said that Ann Altman faces “mental health challenges” and “refuses conventional treatment and lashes out at members of the family who’re genuinely attempting to help.”

Sam Altman has gained international prominence since OpenAI’s debut of the bogus intelligence chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022. Backed by Microsoft, the corporate was most recently valued at $157 billion, with funding coming from Thrive Capital, chipmaker Nvidia, SoftBank and others.

Altman was briefly ousted from the CEO role by OpenAI’s board in November 2023, but was quickly reinstated because of pressure from investors and employees.

This is not the one lawsuit the tech exec faces.

In March, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sued OpenAI and co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman, alleging breach of contract and fiduciary duty. Musk, who now runs a competing AI startup, xAI, was a co-founder of OpenAI when it began as a nonprofit in 2015. Musk left the board in 2018 and has publicly criticized OpenAI for allegedly abandoning its original mission.

Musk is suing to maintain OpenAI from turning right into a for-profit company. In June, Musk withdrew the unique grievance filed in a San Francisco state court and later refiled in federal court. 

Last month, OpenAI clapped back against Musk, claiming in a blog post that in 2017 Musk “not only wanted, but actually created, a for-profit” to function the corporate’s proposed recent structure.

WATCH: OpenAI unveils for-profit plans