Saber denies using AI to replace writers — and the former lead writer disagrees
saber interactive ceo matthew karch says human writers wrote rideshare stimulator, but former lead writer stella sacco claims she was replaced by chatgpt. the dispute highlights growing friction over ai's role in creative industries and the transparency required in game development.
a public dispute has erupted between saber interactive and former lead writer stella sacco, who claims she was fired in december 2023 so the studio could use chatgpt to generate rideshare stimulator's passenger dialogue and voice audio. ceo matthew karch countered the allegation, stating the main story was written by real people and that ai is strictly for an experimental mode requiring infinite content generation. sacco argues that blending human-written rides with ai-generated output obscures the displacement of creative labor, noting the steam page lacks ai disclosure. this situation illustrates the difficulty of defining 'ai replacement' in modern game pipelines and the potential for worker backlash as generative tools automate tasks previously done by humans.