AI use is one of the most divisive issues in the games industry, but a dispute between Saber Interactive and a former writer has now escalated into a public war of words.
The controversy surrounds Rideshare “Stimulator,” an upcoming driving game developed by Unigine and published by Saber in which players operate a rideshare business, transporting passengers with different stories and personalities.
Shortly after the game surfaced online, former Saber lead writer Stella Sacco claimed she had worked on the project before being replaced by generative AI, writing: “I didn’t even see this had been announced. I was lead writer on this one! And Saber replaced me with ChatGPT midway through development. All the passenger voices were AI too. Either they changed direction at some point, or they’re not disclosing it on Steam.”
The allegations quickly spread online, with fans slamming the company for reportedly replacing a writer with AI, prompting Saber to issue a statement to PC Gamer denying the rumors.
“Neither Saber nor Unigine have replaced any writers with AI for Rideshare or any other game,” it said. “In fact, Saber’s staff of writers has tripled since 2023. Rideshare’s story was written entirely by real people.”
However, Saber confirmed that an experimental free-ride mode will incorporate AI because the number of possible passengers is described as infinite.
Despite this, the Saber CEO Matthew Karch has now personally clapped back at the allegations, prompting another response from Sacco.
Saber CEO and former writer exchange heated statements #
In a statement provided to This Week in Videogames, Karch said he had never spoken to or seen Sacco before addressing Saber’s planned AI disclosure.
“Stella who? I had to ask Claude because I have never spoken to her or seen her,” Karch said. “We have already said we are using AI for certain parts of the game and will update the Steam page once we have finalized the feature set.”
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“Let me clarify that the entire story script, were it to win an award, would go to someone who can walk up on stage and receive it. It was always our intention to reveal this until Stella violated her confidentiality clause and revealed this before we were ready.”
The CEO then directly disputed Sacco’s version of events, claiming she was replaced by another writer before being dismissed for separate reasons several months later: “As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone more talented and terminated for a variety of reasons a few months later.”
“From what I can gather, she enjoys controversy even more than I do. I would frankly in retrospect have been happy to replace her with AI. At least we would be dealing with someone programmed to be honest,” wrote Karch.
Shortly after, Sacco released her own statement, standing by her original account and criticizing Karch’s response.
Hey everybody. I’ve seen the statement by Matt Karch, the CEO of Saber Entertainment, and all of the truly horrendous things he said about me. I think it should be obvious to anyone who reads that statement that he’s lashing out because he did not want people to know there was AI use in the game.
- — Stella Sacco ( “I’ve seen the statement by Matt Karch, the CEO of Saber Entertainment, and all of the truly horrendous things he said about me,” she said. “I think it should be obvious to anyone who reads that statement that he’s lashing out because he did not want people to know there was AI use in the game.”
“Everything I said was true. Here’s more truth: that statement is remarkably pathetic for the CEO of any company to be making, and combined with the AI use it will do far more damage to Saber’s reputation than it ever could mine. This screed will be many people’s first exposure to the Saber brand.”
At present, the two sides continue to give conflicting accounts. Sacco maintains that she was removed from the project so ChatGPT could produce additional text, while Saber says the story was written by people and that AI is limited to the experimental free-ride mode.