Ann Altman, the youthful sister of OpenAI’s chief govt and founder, Sam Altman, filed a lawsuit in a Missouri federal court docket on Monday accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was a minor.
The swimsuit, filed in U.S. District Court docket for the Japanese District of Missouri, mentioned that the abuse occurred within the Altmans’ household dwelling exterior St. Louis from 1997 to 2006 and began when Ms. Altman was 3 years previous.
The lawsuit mentioned Ms. Altman had sustained bodily damage and had “skilled PTSD, extreme emotional misery, psychological anguish and melancholy, which is anticipated to proceed into the long run,” on account of the abuse.
Ms. Altman has lengthy made comparable sexual assault claims towards her brother on social media companies like X. She is represented by an Illinois-based legislation agency that makes a speciality of sexual assault and harassment circumstances.
In a statement posted to X on Tuesday, Mr. Altman, alongside along with his mom and two youthful brothers, denied the claims. “Annie has made deeply hurtful and fully unfaithful claims about our household, and particularly Sam,” the assertion mentioned. “This example causes immense ache to our complete household.”
The assertion mentioned that Ms. Altman had “psychological well being challenges” and “refuses typical therapy and lashes out at relations who’re genuinely making an attempt to assist.”
Ms. Altman and Mr. Altman didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Since OpenAI launched the web chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022, Mr. Altman has gained widespread fame because the face of the worldwide artificial-intelligence growth set off by the chatbot, which might reply questions, write poetry and even generate pc applications. In October, OpenAI accomplished a brand new funding deal that valued the company at $157 billion.
(The New York Occasions sued OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement of stories content material associated to A.I. methods. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied these claims.)
Ms. Altman’s lawsuit requests a jury trial and damages in extra of $75,000. Ms. Altman’s lawyer, Ryan Mahoney, mentioned in an interview with The Occasions that the quantity was the minimal required for a federal swimsuit of this sort. He mentioned that if the swimsuit proceeded to a jury trial, he and his consumer would search “an quantity that totally compensates my consumer for what occurred to her.”
He added that they had been additionally searching for punitive damages that will be based mostly on Mr. Altman’s web price.
Mr. Mahoney mentioned the swimsuit was filed on Monday due to a Missouri statute that allowed survivors of childhood sexual abuse to convey a lawsuit as much as 10 years after their twenty first birthday. Ms. Altman turned 31 on Wednesday.