OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to sexual assault accusations from his estranged younger sister on Tuesday, calling the claims “entirely untrue.”
According to the Saint Louis Post Dispatch, in a new lawsuit filed Monday, Annie Altman alleges her older brother sexually assaulted her over a nine-year period in the 1990s and 2000s. The suit echoes claims that Annie previously made on social media in 2021.
Sam Altman acknowledged the lawsuit in a post on X on Tuesday, responding with a statement from his brothers, Max and Jack, as well as his mother, Connie.
The Altman family alleges the lawsuit’s claims are false. They write that Annie has faced mental health challenges for several years and they are concerned about her well-being. The Altmans say they have tried to help Annie in many ways, including by financially supporting her for several years.
The Altman family writes in the statement:
Despite this, Annie continues to demand more money from us. In this vein, Annie has made deeply hurtful and entirely untrue claims about our family, and especially Sam. We’ve chosen not to respond publicly, out of respect for her privacy and our own. However, she has now taken legal action against Sam, and we feel we have no choice but to address this.
Over the years, she has accused members of our family of improperly withholding our father’s 401k funds, hacking her wifi, and “shadowbanning” her from various websites including ChatGPT, Twitter, and more. The worst allegation she has made is that she was sexually abused by Sam as a child (she has also claimed instances of sexual abuse from others). Her claims have evolved drastically over time. Newly for this lawsuit, they now include allegations of incidents where Sam was over 18.
Sam Altman has long been estranged from his sister, according to a 2023 profile of the OpenAI CEO in New York Magazine. While Altman frequently talks about his brothers, who are themselves tech entrepreneurs and investors, he rarely mentions his sister publicly. At one point, per the New York Magazine profile, Annie asked him to repost her podcast, a request that Sam refused. The piece separately noted that Altman has repeatedly tried to offer Annie money, gifts, and even to buy her a house.
The profile piece echoes some of the concerns around Annie’s mental health that Altman described in his response to her accusations on Tuesday. It describes Annie as having an unstable personal life, noting that she once moved 20 times in a single year. The death of their father, Jerry, in 2018 was apparently a tipping point for Annie’s mental health.
