Former lead writer says she was pulled off driving game Rideshare Stimulator in favor of ChatGPT
Saber Interactive has denied replacing a writer with ChatGPT on its upcoming driving game Rideshare Stimulator.
The denial follows public allegations from Stella Sacco, who says she was lead writer on the project before being taken off it partway through development.
Sacco, whose LinkedIn lists her as Saber's lead writer from July 2023 to July 2024, wrote on Bluesky: "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."
Sacco added: "When this edict came down, I warned Matt Karch, who made the AI push, that players hated AI in Dec[ember] 2023 and they'd hate it even more by the time the game came out. I told him this pushback would happen. He didn't listen to me, he didn't listen to my boss, he seemingly didn't listen to anyone at all."
In response, the studio told PC Gamer: "Neither Saber nor Unigine have replaced any writers with AI for Rideshare or any other game. In fact, Saber's staff of writers has tripled since 2023. Rideshare's story was written entirely by real people.
"The game will also feature an experimental, free-ride mode that by necessity incorporates AI as the number of passengers in the game is infinite. We are firm believers in using AI tools to improve or enhance gameplay experiences and improve NPC behavior as we have done since Saber was founded in 2001. As the industry has continued to contract, Saber continues to hire. None of our 3000+ employees have to worry about being replaced by AI."
Sacco has, however, stood by her account since Saber's statement went out.
"They can say what they want – I was there, I even posted on Facebook about it at the time, and I have mentioned it on Bluesky several times without using the game’s title.
"They took me off the project to use ChatGPT to write the rest of the text, including planned live updates. If they changed plans in the intervening years, that's great, but again: I was there, and it was my job to write the game, and then it wasn't once Matt Karch decided using ChatGPT would be great publicity for the game."
The game's Steam page currently carries no AI disclosure, despite Valve's requirement that developers flag generative AI content that reaches players directly.
Earlier this year, GamesIndustry.biz had a week of content about AI, covering topics including whether the technology was useful for coding and the use of AI in game development in general.