Saber Interactive is disputing a former writer’s claim that she was replaced by ChatGPT on Rideshare “Stimulator,” a game announced last month and developed by Unigine, according to The Verge. The dispute centers on how much of the game’s writing and passenger content is human-authored versus generated. Stella Sacco, identified by The Verge as a former lead writer on the project, said on Bluesky that she had worked as lead writer and that Saber “replaced me with ChatGPT” midway through development. She also claimed that the passenger voices were AI. Saber CEO Matthew Karch gave The Verge a different account. In a statement, he said neither Saber nor Unigine had replaced writers with AI and said the game’s story was written by people, with an exception for one experimental mode. That exception matters. Karch told The Verge that Rideshare “Stimulator” will include an experimental free-ride mode that uses AI because the number of passengers in the game is infinite. He framed AI use as a gameplay tool, saying Saber has used AI-related techniques to improve gameplay experiences and non-player character behavior since the company was founded in 2001. The Verge reports that Saber describes the title as an immersive driving simulation game in which the player runs a rideshare business. The outlet also says scenes shown in a teaser trailer appear to include AI-generated writing and audio for simulated riders. According to The Verge, the game’s Steam listing does not currently include a disclosure about generative AI use. Sacco rejected Karch’s framing in a message to The Verge. Her argument is that Saber cannot separate the labor question from the product design if rides she wrote appear alongside rides written or voiced by AI. She told the outlet that Saber had told her in December 2023 that AI was taking over work she had been doing. Karch’s statement also pushed back on the broader labor implication. The Verge reports that he said Saber continues to hire despite industry contraction and that none of Saber’s more than 3,000 employees need to worry about being replaced by AI. For now, the public record is a direct conflict between a former lead writer and Saber’s CEO. What is clearer is narrower: both accounts, as reported by The Verge, place AI inside the project in some form. The unresolved question is whether that use replaced human writing work, or whether it is limited to the experimental mode Saber describes. Who benefits: Saber and Unigine benefit if they can use AI to expand an open-ended passenger system while maintaining that the authored story remains human-written. Players may benefit from more varied free-ride encounters if the system works as described. Who's exposed: Saber is exposed to reputational and disclosure scrutiny because the former lead writer publicly contests its account and The Verge reports that Steam currently shows no generative-AI disclosure. Other studios using AI-generated dialogue or voices face similar questions about how they describe that work.