OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visits “Making Money With Charles Payne” at Fox Business Network Studios in New York on December 4, 2024.
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The sister of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Ann Altman, filed a lawsuit on Monday, alleging that her brother abused her regularly between the years 1997 and 2006.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges that the abuse took place at the family's home in Clayton, Missouri, and began when Annie, who goes by Annie, was three and Sam was 12. The filing says the abusive acts happened “several times a week,” starting with oral sex and later on forward includes go in.
The lawsuit alleges that “as a direct and proximate result of the prior acts of sexual assault,” the plaintiff has experienced “severe emotional distress, mental anguish and depression, which is expected to last in the future.”
The younger Altman has made similar sexual assault allegations against her brother in the past platforms like Xbut this is the first time she brought him to court. She is represented by Ryan Mahoney, whose firm based in Illinois specializes in cases involving sexual assault and harassment.
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and damages in excess of $75,000.
In a partnership report on X along with his mother, Connie, and his brothers Jack and Max, Sam Altman denied the allegations.
“Annie has made very hurtful and completely false allegations about our family, and especially Sam,” the statement said. “We have chosen not to respond publicly, out of respect for your privacy and our own However, she has now taken legal action against Sam, and we feel we have no choice but to deal with this.”
Their response says “all these claims are completely false,” adding that “this situation is causing great pain to our entire family.” They said that Ann Altman is facing “mental health challenges” and is “refusing conventional treatment and hitting on family members who are genuinely trying to help.”
Sam Altman has gained international fame since OpenAI started the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022. Supported by MicrosoftThe company was recently valued at $157 billion, with funding coming from chipmaker Thrive Capital NvidiaSoftBank and others.
Altman was briefly ousted from the CEO role by OpenAI's board in November 2023, but was quickly reinstated due to pressure from investors and employees.
This is not the only lawsuit that the chief technical officer is facing.
In March, Tesla and CEO of SpaceX 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 started as a non-profit in 2015. Musk left the board in 2018 and has criticized publicly blasted OpenAI for allegedly abandoning its original mission.
Musk is suing to prevent OpenAI from becoming a for-profit company. In June, Musk withdrew the original complaint filed in state court in San Francisco and later repeated in federal court.
Last month, OpenAI knocked back against Musk, claiming in a blog post that in 2017 Musk “not only wanted, but actually created, for profit” to be the company's planned new structure.
