Saber denies replacing writers with ChatGPT on Rideshare Stimulator game

The dispute between Stella Sacco and Saber CEO Matthew Karch centers on a fundamental disagreement over what "replacing writers with AI" means. Karch's statement allows room for AI to be used in the game while maintaining that no writers were replaced—specifically, he highlights the free-ride mode as a feature that "by necessity" uses AI because of the game's infinite passenger count. However, Sacco points out that this logic creates a contradiction: if the same game contains both human-written and AI-written content serving the same narrative function (passenger dialogue and storylines), then human labor has been displaced even if some writers' work remains in the final product. Her claim that she was explicitly told in December 2023 that she was being replaced suggests a deliberate shift in production methodology partway through development, which Karch's framing of AI as a tool for "improving gameplay" does not directly address.

The absence of any AI disclosure on the game's Steam page adds a layer of significance to this dispute. Karch's statement emphasizes Saber's commitment to hiring—the studio claims 3,000+ employees and no planned AI-driven job cuts—yet the core issue is whether existing workers were displaced mid-project, regardless of overall headcount. Sacco's rebuttal demands clarity on whether it is possible to simultaneously claim that writers authored the game and that AI generated text within it, suggesting that transparent labeling of which content is human-created and which is machine-generated would be the most straightforward way to settle the factual disagreement.