One of the biggest talking points in gaming today is the use of artificial intelligence, including generative AI. It’s a hot-button issue, and few companies have faced the level of criticism about it as Saber has. The developer recently found itself in hot water after CEO Matthew Karch lashed out at Rideshare Stimulator’s former writer who said they were laid off and replaced by ChatGPT.
Now, Saber’s chief creative officer, Tim Willits, has addressed the situation as well, promising that, „We will never fire someone and replace them with AI.“
For anyone just catching up, Rideshare Stimulator is an upcoming Saber game where players take on the role of an Uber- or Lyft-like driver and interact with them as they take them to their location. The developers freely admit to using generative AI in various capacities, and now Willits has shed more light on the situation. He said the game’s main campaign features dialogue written by humans, but there is also a „free ride“ mode where Rideshare Stimulator wants to be able to reference current events in the real world.
„We use AI to generate that because we want to do it so fast,“ Willits said, adding that the plan is for weekly or biweekly updates with this kind of AI-generated content.
Willits also clarified that some of Saber’s other games, including the new Hellraiser, Turok, Stuntman, and Space Marine games, also do not use AI. Saber, like many other game companies, is experimenting with AI in various ways.
„We want to figure this new technology out, and we don’t know exactly where it’s gonna go, and our players don’t know where it’s gonna go, so we’re all … all of us are trying as a society to figure this out together,“ he said. „We want to experiment with it. I personally believe somebody [at] some game company will come up with such a brilliant idea, and we’ll all be like, ‚That’s it.‘ We just need to get there.“
When asked specifically about claims that Saber is firing people and replacing them with AI, Willits said this is not true. „I promise you we have never let anyone go and replaced them with AI. We hire people all the time,“ he said.
A spokesperson for Saber previously told PC Gamer that neither Saber nor Rideshare developer Unigine replaced any writers with AI for that game or any others. „In fact, Saber’s staff of writers has tripled since 2023. Rideshare’s story was written entirely by real people,“ the company said.
Rideshare’s „experimental, free-ride mode“ does use generative AI „by necessity,“ Saber said, because „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,“ the developer said.
The writer in question, Stella Sacco, said Karch reached out to „apologize unreservedly“ for how he spoke about Sacco. Karch had said, „Stella who? I had to ask Claude because I have never spoken to her or seen her.“
Sacco added in a statement that Karch said „he regretted escalating and how people online were speaking about me.“
„I’m not worried about being called slurs by random commenters–I’m a trans woman; that’s every day for me. But it stunk to have my skill and reputation built of 20 years in games publicly maligned by someone with institutional power.“