United States: Sam Altman denies his sister’s accusations of sexual assault

Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, the Californian start-up that launched ChatGPT, published a message on Tuesday about his sister, Annie Altman, who has just filed a complaint against him, accusing him of sexual assault during his childhood.

“Annie has made completely false and hurtful statements about our family, and especially Sam,” he said in a letter co-signed by his mother and two brothers and published on the X network.

“Our family loves Annie and is very concerned for her well-being. Caring for a family member facing mental health issues is incredibly difficult,” they say at the start of the message.

An AI “beneficial for humanity”

A Silicon Valley personality for years, Sam Altman gained global fame in 2023 with the success of ChatGPT, which launched the technological revolution of generative artificial intelligence (AI).

A prolific entrepreneur, soon to be in his forties and already a billionaire, he has made it his mission to develop so-called “general” AI, with cognitive capacities similar to those of humans and “beneficial for humanity”.

The Altman family claims to have tried to help their daughter and sister by covering various costs and guaranteeing her “monthly financial assistance, probably for the rest of her life”.

“All these allegations are completely false”

“Despite this, Annie continues to ask us for more money,” they say, specifying that they decided to respond publicly, after years of tension, because of the complaint filed Monday by their loved one.

“The worst accusation she has made is that she was sexually abused by Sam when she was a child […]. His claims have evolved considerably over time. As part of this complaint, they now include allegations of incidents that occurred when Sam was over the age of 18,” they state. “All of these allegations are completely false.”

According to the complaint of Annie Altman, nine years Sam Altman’s junior, the attacks took place from 1997, when she was three years old, and until 2006.

In a report from New York Magazine in 2023, the journalist, who had met Annie in Hawaii, describes her as an artist suffering from depression and a growing gap with her family, and supporting herself in particular through online prostitution. .

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