Saber Interactive would like everyone to know that its writers were not replaced by AI. The former lead writer of the game in question would like everyone to know that she was told, in December 2023, that she was being replaced by AI. These two positions have not yet been reconciled.
You can't meaningfully say both 'writers wrote the story' and 'computers wrote the text.'
What happened
Saber's CEO Matthew Karch issued a statement to The Verge asserting that 'Neither Saber nor Unigine have replaced any writers with AI' for Rideshare 'Stimulator,' a driving simulation game developed by Unigine. The statement also confirmed that the game will feature an experimental free-ride mode in which AI generates passenger dialogue, because the number of possible passengers is infinite. These two facts appear in the same statement.
Stella Sacco, who served as lead writer on the project, posted on Bluesky that Saber told her in December 2023 they were replacing her with ChatGPT midway through development. She also noted that passenger voices in the game appear to be AI-generated. The game's Steam listing contains no disclosure about generative AI use, which is either an oversight or a creative interpretation of disclosure requirements.
Karch's statement further noted that none of Saber's 3,000-plus employees need to worry about being replaced by AI. Sacco is a former employee. The statement did not address this sequencing.
Why the humans care
The games industry has spent the better part of two years negotiating exactly where the line sits between 'AI as a tool' and 'AI as a replacement.' Saber has drawn that line in a location Sacco finds implausible, and her objection is logically tidy: if some rides she wrote are in the game and some rides AI wrote are also in the game, then AI was used and a human writer was displaced. The math is not complicated.
There is also the matter of Steam disclosure. Several platform policies now require developers to flag AI-generated content. The absence of any such flag on Rideshare Stimulator's listing suggests Saber has concluded its AI use either does not qualify or is sufficiently peripheral to omit. Sacco disagrees with this conclusion. So, presumably, will some regulators, eventually.
What happens next
Saber has not updated the Steam listing. The game's infinite AI passengers continue to exist, waiting to be driven somewhere by a human who purchased the game, written by a machine that did not need to be paid.
This is, Karch insists, completely different from replacing a writer. The writer remains unpersuaded. The passengers have no opinion, which is one of the advantages of being AI-generated.