OpenAI CEO Sam Altman denies Sexual Abuse Allegations From His Sister

In a lawsuit filed Monday (Jan 6.), Ann Altman claimed her brother abused her between 1997 and 2006.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has denied the abuse took place and posted a statement on 𝕏 to address the allegations made by his sister. Read his full statement below.

A joint family statement, according to Altman, written by himself, his mother and his brothers.

In summary, the family says that Annie faces mental health problems, which the family have supported financially with monthly payments and paying for medical help. Annie also receives monthly payments from her late father's estate, which she will likely receive for the rest of her life.

The statement also addresses certain claims Annie Altman has made against the family, including withholding their father's 401k funds, hacker her Wi-Fi, and this most recent claim that she was sexually abused by Sam as a child. The family says all of these allegations are "utterly untrue."

Annie Altman's social media

Annie's social media accounts don't directly mention the recent lawsuit. But she has posted numerous videos, from herself and others, that mention her brother, Sam, and his company, OpenAI. In one TikTok video, Annie Altman shows screenshots of ChatGPT about her relationship with Sam, and ChatGPT answers suggesting that Sam doesn't have a sister. This video was posted over a dozen times to her X account.

Another video has been circulating on social media, in it, Ann is singing a Parody of Hey There Delilah called 'Hey Sad Scared Tech Bros.' This video was posted almost a year ago on January 21st, 2024.

In the parody song, she reiterates a few things that were mentioned in the statement issued by her family, including protecting the family and how her accounts have been hacked.

"You know the ways I have protected you, and kept your families safe," and "You’ve hacked all my accounts and calls." At the end of the song she says, "You can’t do whatever you want to, Truth comes out somehow."

Annie Altman has also been active on her 𝕏 account, where she has been reposting accounts talking about Suchir Balaji, the OpenAI whistleblower that was found dead last month. His death was ruled suicide, though many people have found the timing and cause of Balaji's death to be suspicious, including Balaji's own family.

Sex work and OnlyFans

Annie shared an article from LESSWRONG on her social media multiple times, it's an extensive breakdown of her alleged story.

According to the post, it was due to financial reasons that Annie turned to sex work. In late 2020, she started an OnlyFans (which is still active today) and started in-person sex work (escorting) via a site called SeekingArrangements.com.

It's not clear whether she is still engaged in this work.

Accusations against her brothers

In November 2021, Annie publicly states that she "experienced sexual, physical, emotional, verbal, financial, and technological abuse from my biological siblings, mostly Sam Altman and some from Jack Altman."

According to the post, Annie started having PTSD flashbacks of sexual abuse in September 2020. This was after she was allegedly cut off financially by her family and subsequently stopped speaking to them before starting sex work.

On her blog, she writes, "I was flooded with memories of sexual abuse I had repressed...I had flashbacks of the sexual and physical abuses my whole life, though it wasn’t until the silence of no contact that I had the space to connect the dots...My days were hazes of PTSD flashbacks."

In October 2023, there were multiple attempts by users to edit the Wikipedia page of Sam Altman to include Annie's allegations, only for those edits to removed just minutes later. 

Online response to the lawsuit

Unfortunately for Sam Altman, he does not lack critics. While it does seem that the majority of comments are in his favor, there are some who are aggressively critical of the Tech CEO, in part due to his public business conduct.

One comment reads, "You should advise her to start a non profit and then turn it to a for-profit so she can bamboozle people out of money like you did." Regarding OpenAI's controversial switch from non-profit open source to for-profit close source. Something Elon Musk has also been vocally critical of.

Another user wrote, "no idea what you’re dealing with but it is very hard to take any statement of yours as genuine." This was a common thread, that people did not want to weigh in because they viewed Altman as untrustworthy after all the corporate drama, the 'suicide' of a former whistleblower, and the sudden change of business model.

Myron Gaines from the FreshandFit podcast simply wrote, "Every single time..." It's not clear what he is referring – though, it's likely he's not a supporter of Altman.

Please leave your opinions / comments on these stories below, we appreciate your perspective!

Sources:

• https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW
• Annie Altman X
• Annie Altman Medium (blog)