Ann Altman, the youthful sister of OpenAI’s chief government 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 Courtroom for the Japanese District of Missouri, mentioned that the abuse occurred within the Altmans’ household residence outdoors St. Louis from 1997 to 2006 and began when Ms. Altman was 3 years outdated.
The lawsuit mentioned Ms. Altman had sustained bodily harm and had “skilled PTSD, extreme emotional misery, psychological anguish and despair, which is predicted to proceed into the longer term,” on account of the abuse.
Ms. Altman has lengthy made comparable sexual assault claims in opposition to her brother on social media companies like X. She is represented by an Illinois-based legislation agency that focuses on sexual assault and harassment circumstances.
In a statement posted to X on Tuesday, Mr. Altman, alongside together 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 case causes immense ache to our whole household.”
The assertion mentioned that Ms. Altman had “psychological well being challenges” and “refuses typical therapy and lashes out at members of the family who’re genuinely attempting to assist.”
Ms. Altman and Mr. Altman didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Since OpenAI launched the net chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022, Mr. Altman has gained widespread fame because the face of the worldwide artificial-intelligence increase 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 Instances sued OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement of reports content material associated to A.I. techniques. 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 Instances that the quantity was the minimal required for a federal swimsuit of this type. He mentioned that if the swimsuit proceeded to a jury trial, he and his shopper would search “an quantity that totally compensates my shopper for what occurred to her.”
He added that they have been additionally in search of punitive damages that will be primarily based on Mr. Altman’s web value.
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.
