Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, the Californian start-up that created ChatGPT, posted a message for his sister Annie.
Annie Altman has just filed a complaint against him, accusing him of sexually assaulting her as a child.
"Annie has made completely false and offensive statements about our family, especially Sam," he said in a letter signed by his mother and two brothers and published on X.
"Our family loves Annie and is very concerned for her welfare. Caring for a family member with mental health issues is extremely difficult," they said at the beginning of the message, quoted by AFP.
A Silicon Valley personality for years, Sam Altman gained worldwide fame in 2023 with the success of ChatGPT, which launched the revolution in generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
A prolific entrepreneur who will soon turn forty and is already a billionaire, he has set himself the goal of developing what he calls "generic" AI, with cognitive abilities similar to those of humans, and "useful to humanity".
Altman's family say they have tried to help their daughter and sister by covering various expenses and guaranteeing her "monthly financial support, possibly for the rest of her life".
"Yet Annie continues to ask us for more money," they say, adding that they have decided to respond publicly after years of tension over the complaint filed by a relative.
"The worst accusation she has made is that she was sexually abused by Sam when she was a child. Her allegations have changed significantly over time. In the context of this complaint, they now include allegations of incidents that occurred when Sam was over 18. All of these allegations are completely false," they add.
According to the complaint by Annie Altman, nine years younger than Sam Altman, the assaults took place from 1997, when she was three, to 2006.
In a report in New York magazine in 2023, a journalist who had met Annie in Hawaii described her as an artist suffering from depression and a growing rift with her family, and supporting herself mainly through online prostitution. | BGNES
