Saber, accused of replacing a writer with ChatGPT, explains how AI was used to help write upcoming video game

Saber denies replacement claim, as CEO publicly insults former writer who called out AI usage

Writers working on Saber Interactive’s upcoming driving game Rideshare Stimulator are using AI prompts to generate driver-passenger dialogues that they then edit for the game’s “experimental” side mode, the company’s CEO Matt Karch tells Game File. This is in addition to the game’s main, human authored script, Saber says.

Karch shared that explanation amid an unexpectedly acrimonious week of discussion around the game. That discussion has partially involved Saber’s initially undisclosed use of generative AI to help write the game.

To get you up to speed.

On Monday: Game File reported that Rideshare Stimulator’s July 30th debut trailer had included some digs at a rival gaming executive. That piece quoted Karch explaining the point of those digs. The piece generated some buzz online.

On Tuesday: Stella Sacco, a former writer on the game said on social media that she’d been replaced on the project in late 2023 by ChatGPT. In reference to the trailer, she wrote:

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

Sacco stressed this had been a Saber upper management call and that she had no grievance with Unigine.

Later on Tuesday: Saber issued a statement denying the replacement of humans for AI. They said that the game, which is about driving eccentric passengers to their destinations, used AI for an “experimental” side mode that used AI “by necessity.”

Here’s that statement, in full:

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.

On Wednesday morning, I contacted Saber PR with some follow-ups about their statement.

I wanted to understand how AI was going to be used to write dialogue for an “infinite” number of passengers. Was the game going to be pinging an AI server to generate new rider dialogues on the fly? That’s how I was reading their statement, and, my understanding was that such an approach would rack up AI charges for Saber per newly-generated dialogue. I’d heard that Epic’s implementation of this approach for Darth Vader in Fortnite last year had been expensive. That didn’t seem like something Saber would do.

And what exactly did “Rideshare’s story was written entirely by real people” mean? The whole script? Just the plot?

By mid-day Wednesday, Saber PR replied, with two answers that they said came directly from Karch.

On the AI writing process he said, no, the game wouldn’t be pinging a server for new genAI-written dialogue as players were driving around.

Instead, he said, the game’s writers were using AI prompts to generate batches of dialogues that they were then editing for the game’s endless mode, with more batches planned if needed.

Here’s how Karch put it:

“The dialogues are produced offline via prompts created by our writers (and verified to ensure they are within guardrails). The prompts are intended to elicit a wide range of topics that include current events. The dialogues are then uploaded to everyone and played only once for any given gamer. We don’t allow the player to prompt dialogues. Each dialogue is a new ‘ride.’ The frequency of the generation will be highly dependent on how large the audience is, but the implementation is relatively cost efficient.”

Sacco had pointed out that the game’s Steam page doesn’t include an AI disclosure.

In 2024, Valve began requiring developers to disclose if generative AI tools were used to develop their games. This reflected concerns by some game makers and players that generative AI is not a boon for game development but a negative, that, for example, such tools may plagiarize other people’s work. Games listed on Valve’s Steam marketplace began including disclosures if genAI was used to make the game. Some fans didn’t care. Others pledged to skip such games.

Earlier this year, Valve adjusted its policy, saying that AI disclosure wouldn’t be necessary for AI tools used to improve development efficiency, such as AI writing game code, but would be needed for games that use AI to generate in-game content.

The genAI use Karch described for Rideshare Stimulator doesn’t sound like it’ll generate and inject dialogue directly into the game. But it also doesn’t seem like it could be classified strictly as an efficiency helper. A rep for Saber told me yesterday that an AI disclosure on the game’s Steam page is forthcoming.

As for my question about “written entirely by real people,” Karch’s response on Wednesday was as follows:

“Humans wrote the story, all of it. I mean it’s not Shakespeare level prose but it’s better than Claude could produce. But frankly from what I hear from my team that statement might not apply to the writer in question.”

I’m not used to gaming executives proving statements, via their PR team, that insult former employees. I’ve spoken to Karch enough previously to not be surprised that this is how he’d feel, but was surprised he’d take that approach here. Busy with other reporting yesterday, I put off deciding how I’d use Karch’s comments.

By Wednesday evening, This Week In Video Games had published their own batch of comments from Karch. In them, he attested to humans writing the game’s script and took even more aggressive shots at Sacco: “Stella who? I had to ask Claude because I have never spoken to her or seen her…As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone more talented and terminated for a variety of reasons a few months later.”

Sacco reacted on social media later on Wednesday:

“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.

“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.”

On the game’s Steam page, subsequent discussions on the user forums have been scathing against Karch and Saber.