Earlier this week Stella Sacco, a former lead writer at Saber Interactive, claimed on social media that the company had "replaced me with ChatGPT midway through development" of the game Rideshare "Stimulator", that "all the passenger voices [in the game] were AI" and that "either they changed direction at some point or they’re not disclosing it on Steam".
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
— Stella Sacco (@antlervel.vet) August 12, 2026 at 1:05 AM
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In an initial statement to PC Gamer, Saber addressed these allegations in a somewhat straightforward manner:
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.
To which Sacco responded, also to PC Gamer, by saying:
They can say what they want—I was there, I even posted on Facebook about it at the time, and I have mentioned it on Bluesky several times without using the game’s title.
They took me off the project to use ChatGPT to write the rest of the text, including planned live updates. If they changed plans in the intervening years, that’s great, but again: I was there, and it was my job to write the game, and then it wasn’t once Matt Karch decided using ChatGPT would be great publicity for the game.
Matt Karch is the CEO of Saber, and earlier today he decided to add to the discussion–and set fire to his professional reputation–by sending a follow-up statement to TWIVG, in which he assembles four paragraphs blending personal and deeply unprofessional insults with further admissions to the use of AI in Rideshare "Stimulator", despite the game's Steam page containing no AI disclosures.
“Stella who? I had to ask Claude because I have never spoken to her or seen her. We have already said we are using AI for certain parts of the game and will update the Steam page once we have finalized the feature set.
“Let me clarify that the entire story script, were it to win an award, would go to someone who can walk up on stage and receive it. It was always our intention to reveal this until Stella violated her confidentiality clause and revealed this before we were ready.
“We look at our use of AI in this particular game, which will be a lower priced title, as a plus for consumers,” he said.
“As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone more talented and terminated for a variety of reasons a few months later. From what I can gather she enjoys controversy even more than I do. I would frankly in retrospect have been happy to replace her with AI. At least we would be dealing with someone programmed to be honest.”
We know that a lot of video game industry professionals read this website. If that's you, I'd hope you remember this statement every time Saber Interactive and their CEO cross your path in the future.
Note: Sacco is a friend of several Aftermath staffers, though not the writer or editor of this story.
Everything I said was true. Here’s more truth: 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.
— Stella Sacco (@antlervel.vet) August 13, 2026 at 9:58 AM
Nicole Carpenter
