Ann Altman, the younger sister of OpenAI CEO and founder Sam Altman, filed a lawsuit in Missouri federal court on Monday accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was a minor.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, said the abuse occurred at the Altman family’s home outside St. Louis from 1997 to 2006 and began when Ms. Altman was 3 years old.
The lawsuit stated that Ms. Altman was physically harmed and “experienced PTSD, severe emotional distress, mental anguish and depression, which is expected to continue into the future,” as a result of the abuse.
Ms. Altman has long made similar sexual assault claims against her brother on social media services like X. She is represented by an Illinois-based law firm that specializes in sexual assault and harassment cases.
In a statement posted to X on Tuesday, Mr. Altman, along with his mother and two younger siblings, denied the allegations. “Annie has made deeply hurtful and completely untrue claims about our family, and especially Sam,” the statement said. “This situation is causing tremendous pain to our entire family.”
The statement said that Ms. Altman had “mental health challenges” and “refuses conventional treatment and lashes out at family members who are genuinely trying to help.”
Ms. Altman and Mr. Altman did not respond to requests for comment.
Since OpenAI launched its online chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022, Mr. Altman gained widespread fame as the face of the global boom in artificial intelligence started by the chatbot, which can answer questions, write poetry and even create computer programs. In October, OpenAI completed a new financing deal that valued the company at $157 billion.
(The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement of news content related to artificial intelligence systems. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied these claims.)
Ms. Altman’s lawsuit seeks a jury trial and damages of more than $75,000. Ms. Altman’s lawyer, Ryan Mahoney, said in an interview with The Times that the amount was the minimum required for a federal lawsuit of this kind. He said that if the lawsuit went to a jury trial, he and his client would seek “an amount that fully compensates my client for what happened to her.”
He added that they are also seeking punitive damages based on Mr. Altman.
Mr. Mahoney said the lawsuit was filed Monday because of a Missouri statute that allowed survivors of child sexual abuse to file a lawsuit up to 10 years after their 21st birthday. Ms. Altman turned 31 on Wednesday.
