Rape allegations against Sam Altman

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

Content warning: The item below refers to kinds of sexual abuse—but there are no graphic descriptions of the acts.

Rape allegations against Sam Altman

The OpenAI chief is being sued by his younger sister Ann—who alleges he sexually abused her from 1997 to 2006—starting when Sam was 12 and Ann just three. It continued until Sam became 21:

The lawsuit said Ms. Altman had sustained bodily injury and had “experienced PTSD, severe emotional distress, mental anguish and depression, which is expected to continue into the future,” as a result of the abuse.

The specific allegations:

But Ms Altman claims her brother "groomed and manipulated" her and performed sex acts on her over several years, including "rape, sexual assault, molestation, sodomy, and battery", according to a court filing seen by the BBC.

The lawsuit is asking for a minimum of $75,000 in damages—but her lawyers say they will eventually seek “an amount that fully compensates my client for what happened to her”—based on Sam’s net worth.

FYI: Ann has made these claims on social media in the past. But the lawsuit was filed now to meet the deadline set by a Missouri statute that allows survivors of childhood sexual abuse to bring a lawsuit up to 10 years after their 21st birthday. Ann turned 31 on Wednesday.

What Sam said: In response, he posted a joint Altman family statement on X—denying all charges. The gist: She is mentally ill, refuses medical help and is making it all up:

The family statement said Ann Altman had made “deeply hurtful and entirely untrue claims” about the family and accused her of demanding more money. They added that they had offered her “monthly financial support” and “attempted to get her medical help” but that she “refuses conventional treatment”.

The Guardian has more details.

The high price of Indian cotton

Between June 2022 and March 2023, US-based NGO Transparentem investigated labour abuses on 90 cotton farms in Madhya Pradesh. They also traced the cotton supply chain from these farms to three Indian suppliers—and finally to the biggest apparel brands in the world: Adidas, H&M, The Gap, American Eagle, Amazon, Columbia Sportswear and 60 others.

Child labour exposed: The investigation found that farms routinely used children under the age of 14—who work as bonded labour (debt slaves) alongside their parents. The working conditions are abusive for all—adults included. These included severe heat exhaustion—combined with little drinking water:

Almost every type of work [on the cotton farm] is difficult because we have to stand in the burning sun the whole day. Sometimes the heat will be so harsh that we get dizzy [and experience] headaches. We will even fall unconscious.

In fact, the women tended not to drink water because there are no toilets or sanitation of any kind.

A poisoned workplace: The greatest danger, however, is the exposure to pesticide. Workers—including children—spray toxic chemicals on the crops without any safety equipment or apparel:

One of them said that he experienced a burning sensation all over his body when he sprayed pesticides in hot weather and that workers were afraid of the chemicals that were used on the farm… Another adult worker who sprayed pesticides said he experienced itchiness throughout his body. “Yes, chemicals will cause problems. The odor will be overwhelmingly bad,” hee explained. “Due to helplessness, we have to do it because we have debt to be paid to the farmer.”

Not exactly news: The Transparentem report expands the scope of findings from an earlier Indian Express ground investigation—which exposed the trafficking of child labour from Rajasthan to cotton farms in Gujarat:

Gujarat is one of India’s leading cotton producers, with 26.8 lakh hectares under cotton cultivation. Children, some even as young as eight, are employed to help with artificial pollination — a process under which human help is required to transfer pollen from one cotton flower to another. The average cotton plant is four feet tall, making children “optimal” for the task, locals say.

Point to note: When these farms came under government scrutiny, they encouraged tribals to grow cotton in their own areas—outsourcing the problem rather than fixing it. A 2019 study found that “as much as 70% of cotton production has been outsourced to the tribal areas of North Gujarat and Rajasthan”—exploiting three lakh children—1,25,000 children and 1,90,000 adolescents across four districts.

Reading list: You can read the Transparentem report or a summary in Fortune. The Indian Express investigation is behind a paywall.

LA’s devastating wildfire: 200 acres in 12 minutes

Los Angeles has been reeling from a series of wildfires that broke out on Tuesday. While only five deaths have been reported so far, over 80,000 people have been forced to evacuate and over 1,000 buildings destroyed. The fires are located in four major suburbs. The biggest and most devastating is in the Pacific Palisades, which is one of LA’s fanciest neighbourhoods. The fires there have spread across 3,000 acres—a size comparable to downtown London.

You can see some of the devastation below:

And here’s an eerie drone shot of houses burned down:

Sheer speed of devastation: What makes these fires remarkable is just how quickly they spread—as you can see in the time stamps in the maps below:

The Palisades Fire exploded from 10 acres to 200 acres in 12 minutes. The reason: wind speed. Typically, the Santa Ana wind speed clocks at 60 to 100 kilometres per hour. But this week, speeds have crossed 160—comparable to a hurricane. In fact, a recent study showed that wildfires in the region have spread faster in recent years.

The root cause: Climate change, of course. Annually, Southern California has a long, dry summer season followed by rain in autumn and winter. But, but, but: experts say the vast LA landscape was “ultra-flammable” this time, because the region only received 0.25 inches of rainfall after one of the warmest summers on record. Without the rain, the ultra-fast winds acted like a “giant hair dryer.”

Reading list: Vox and Washington Post offer the most detailed breakdowns behind the conditions that led to the fires’ fast spread. Do also check out New York Times’ blog for live updates.

Uncovering the biology of loneliness

A UK study shows that loneliness affects our bodies at the molecular level—increasing the level of five specific proteins. This in turn has a knock-on effect—as these proteins are also “implicated in inflammation as well as antiviral and immune responses.” The study also uncovered at least a partial relationship between these and cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and death. Point to note: The authors do not claim that proteins are the only link between social isolation and poor health. For example, loneliness can also create stress which is bad for your body. (The Conversation)

The perils of thick-heeled sneakers

Many of us think running shoes with thicker heels will protect our feet from injuries. Turns out we’re wrong. A new study shows that the opposite is true. The reason: “Those in thick-heeled shoes seem to struggle to sense exactly how their feet land with each step, likely contributing to the elevated injury rates.” Basically, you can’t sense how your mid- or fore-foot hits the ground. The solution: Switch to flatter shows—but do it gradually so your body can get used to it. (Independent UK)

what caught our eye

business & tech

Say hello to McAfee’s AI-powered Deepfake Detector, now available in India.
Newly released data from Telegram reveals a spike in sharing of user data with law enforcement—in light of founder Pavel Durov’s arrest. Check out our Big Story for more context.
Silicon Valley is back on top—stats by Crunchbase show that over half of all global VC funding went to Bay Area-based startups in 2024.
The big announcements at CES keep rolling in. Elon Musk’s X has hired John Stoll—a former editor and correspondent at Wall Street Journal—to lead its news group.
Apple is in trouble because its AI news alerts feature has generated plenty of falsehoods—from claiming Luigi Mangione had shot himself to ‘reporting’ that Rafael Nadal has come out as gay.
Another day, another regulatory probe into Tesla—in light of crashes involving tech that allows drivers to remotely command their vehicle through a mobile app.
The UN’s civil aviation agency has been hacked! The damage: 42,000 files of job application data from 2016 to 2024 was allegedly released by the hacker.
Badhaai ho to Getty Images and Shutterstock for their upcoming shaadi, which will result in a visual media entity valued at a whopping $3.7 billion.

sports & entertainment

Nick Kyrgios' Australian Open comeback is in doubt after an abdominal injury forces him out of a Djokovic exhibition scheduled for this week.
Spotify launches its first concert film, ‘Billions Club Live’, with The Weeknd.

as for the rest

The Telegraph has a good read on the work of Indian cartoonists—Satish Acharya and Manjul—flagged by Mumbai police last week for violating IT laws, sparking censorship concerns.
A big win for women: The Kerala High Court held that commenting on woman’s ‘body structure’ amounts to sexual harassment.
A stampede during darshan token distribution for Tirupati's Vaikunta Ekadasi festival has killed six and injured dozens.
A former UK Special Forces officer claims Britain’s elite Special Air Service had a “golden pass” to commit and hide murders in Afghanistan, a public inquiry reveals.
New research warns that nearly 25% of freshwater species face extinction due to pollution, climate change, and habitat destruction.
India extends ousted Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina’s visa amid extradition calls and legal battles over her regime’s alleged crimes.
The Hindu has an all-you-need-to-know on Anita Anand emerging as a strong contender to succeed Justin Trudeau as Canada’s Prime Minister.
Justice long overdue: The Seattle police officer who ran over 23-year-old Indian student—Jaahnavi Kandula in a crosswalk nearly two years ago has been fired.
According to a new report, the water disasters in 2024 killed at least 8,700 people, displaced 40 million from their homes and caused economic damage of more than $550 billion.
The Singaporean passport is the strongest in the world with visa-free to 195 out of 227 countries, as per Henley Passport Index. India is at #85 with access to 57 countries.
A new study has found that a large glass of milk every day may help in cutting the risk of bowel cancer by nearly 20% due to calcium present in the dairy product. For vegans, non-dairy sources of calcium like fortified soy milk has a similar protective effect.
Morning coffee drinkers rejoice—as per research, you all are 16% less likely to die of any cause and 31% less likely to die from heart disease. But but but: the benefits vanish for those who drink coffee throughout the day.

Three things to see

One: The smart espresso maker from Meticulous claims to be your very own barista—with ten sensors to measure water temp, pressure and flow. Bonus: it heats up in a minute and lets you pick classic custom brew profiles from global experts. The high price of being this ‘smart’: $1,350. Check out the launch video below. (TechCrunch)

Two: Whale sharks are the biggest fish in the sea—and have mysterious sex lives that have eluded the best efforts of snoopy scientists. They have finally secured this clip of a male whale shark following and biting the tail of a female in the Ningaloo Reef. Love, truly, bites! (Popular Science)

Three: The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured a record-breaking image of 44 individual stars in Dragon Arc—a galaxy about 6.5 billion light-years away. Gizmodo explains why this is a big deal. We just think it makes a purty pic.

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