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Saber denies replacing Rideshare Stimulator writers with ChatGPT

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Saber denies replacing Rideshare Stimulator writers with ChatGPT

Stella Sacco, who says she was lead writer on Saber Interactive's upcoming game Rideshare "Stimulator," posted on Bluesky that Saber "replaced me with ChatGPT midway through development" and that all the passenger voices in the game were AI-generated too. She said Saber had either changed direction on the game at some point or was not disclosing its AI use on Steam. The game, developed by Unigine and announced last month, is described by Saber as an "immersive driving simulation game that puts you behind the wheel as a rideshare business owner." A teaser trailer for it appears to include AI-generated writing and audio for the simulated riders being picked up, and the Steam listing carries no disclosure about generative AI use. Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch denied the claim in a statement to The Verge: "Neither Saber nor Unigine have replaced any writers with AI." He said the game's story was written entirely by real people except for one experimental mode, and added: "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." Karch also said that "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 replied to Karch's statement in a message sent to The Verge, rejecting the framing: "My indignation at being called a liar by that statement aside, you can't meaningfully say both 'writers wrote the story' and 'computers wrote the text.'" She argued that if some rides were written by her and others were written by AI, AI was still used and she was still replaced, "just as Saber told me they were doing in December 2023." She summed up the dispute: "They're trying to have it both ways. You can't win on the labor part of the statement while you admit you took work away from labor in the next part. It's ridiculous."

Key facts

  • Former lead writer Stella Sacco says Saber replaced her with ChatGPT midway through developing Rideshare "Stimulator" and that all passenger voices are AI-generated.
  • Saber CEO Matthew Karch denies replacing writers with AI, saying the story is written entirely by real people except for one experimental mode.
  • Karch confirms an experimental free-ride mode uses AI "by necessity" because the number of passengers in it is infinite.
  • The game's Steam listing carries no disclosure about generative AI use, and its teaser trailer appears to include AI-generated writing and audio for simulated riders.
  • Sacco says Saber told her in December 2023 that AI was being used, and argues Karch's statement contradicts itself by admitting AI replaced part of her work.

Why it matters

The dispute is a direct clash between a studio's public denial and a named former employee's on-the-record account, playing out over a specific, shippable game rather than in the abstract. It surfaces a split that Karch's own statement makes explicit: a company can say human writers wrote the story while also confirming that AI generates dialogue and voices for an unbounded part of the same game, and those two claims sit uneasily together.

Who it affects

Stella Sacco, the writer who says she was replaced; Saber Interactive and Unigine, the studios behind Rideshare "Stimulator"; and prospective players and Steam buyers who currently get no disclosure that generative AI is used in the game.

How to use it

There is no product action here; the story is a labor and disclosure dispute, not a release. The concrete fact for anyone tracking AI-in-games disclosure practices is that the game's Steam listing does not currently state that it uses generative AI, even though its own developer confirms AI generates the free-ride mode's dialogue and passenger voices.

How solid is it

Both sides are quoted directly and on the record to The Verge: Karch's full statement and Sacco's rebuttal are both reproduced, along with Sacco's original Bluesky post. What is not resolved is which account of the development timeline is accurate; Sacco raises, but the article does not confirm, whether Saber changed its approach mid-development or simply did not disclose it.

Risks and caveats

The two accounts do not fully reconcile: Karch says writers wrote the story except for one experimental mode, while Sacco says she personally was replaced by AI midway through development and that AI-written and human-written rides now coexist in the game. The source does not say how many writers or staff were affected beyond Sacco, does not explain the technical mechanism generating the AI voices and dialogue, and does not say whether Saber plans to add an AI disclosure to the Steam listing.

“My indignation at being called a liar by that statement aside, you can't meaningfully say both 'writers wrote the story' and 'computers wrote the text.'”

— Stella Sacco