OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman, who became a face of the artificial intelligence, is embroiled in a civil lawsuit filed by his sister Annie Altman, accusing him of sexual abuse during childhood. OpenAI’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is seeking to dismiss punitive damages claims of repeated sexual abuse more than two decades ago, Reuters reported.
In a St Louis lawsuit filed in January 2025, Annie Altman accused her brother of sexually abusing and raping her in 1997 at the family home in suburban Clayton, Missouri. She alleged that Sam Altman started sexually abusing her when he was 12 and she was three. According to her statement, the tech billionaire molested her even in his adulthood with the “last acts of sexual abuse and rape” dating back to 2006.
Sam Altman denies sexual abuse accusations
Sam Altman, who is now 40, denies these accusations and in a Wednesday night filing in St Louis federal court said Missouri’s child sexual abuse statute does not authorize punitive damages for Annie Altman’s claims, Reuters reported. He further claimed that the child sexual abuse statute limits Annie to “damages for injury or illness” caused by childhood sexual abuse.
According to Altman family’s joint statement, Annie Altman has mental health challenges and “refuses conventional treatment and lashes out at family members who are genuinely trying to help.” ChatGPT creator in a court filing earlier said that he had been helping his sister financially, but she began accusing him on social media of sexual abuse after they rejected her extortionate demand for “greater and greater financial support.”
Sam Altman filed a counter suit seeking $1 payout, suing his sister for defamation over her posts, including a video that said “an almost tech billionaire” molested her. The amount of the payout was kept low as he did not “want to harm his sister financially” but wanted a verdict that declares her statements as incorrect.
Sam Altman faces Elon Musk’s $134 billion lawsuit
He is also facing a trial regarding Elon Musk’s $134 billion lawsuit against OpenAI. The Tesla chief accused OpenAI of departing from its mission to develop AI to benefit humanity, and defrauding him into donating. In this case, Sam Altman’s trail is scheduled for 27 April in which OpenAI partner Microsoft is also a defendant.
OpenAI, the company behind AI chatbot ChatGPT, was recently valued at $852bn (£644bn) while Sam Altman’s worth an estimated $3.3bn (£2.5bn).
