Saber Interactive Attacks Writer It Allegedly Replaced With AI
Saber Interactive CEO Has Quite Possibly The Worst Response To Accusations Of Replacing A Writer With AI
Earlier this week, Saber Interactive was accused of replacing a writer with ChatGPT. The writer in question, Stella Sacco, made these claims on Bluesky, saying that she was originally the lead writer on Rideshare "Stimulator" before being pushed out in favour of generative AI.
Saber Interactive denied these claims, and now, studio CEO Matthew Karch has also weighed in. In a bizarre response, he says that he cannot remember Sacco, and jokes that he had to ask an LLM to find out who she is. While he continues to deny her claims, he says he would have been "happy to replace her with AI", and admits that AI has been used in areas of the game.
Saber Interactive Denies Replacing A Writer With AI - But Says He Would Have Done It Anyway
These comments come from a statement provided to This Week In Videogames.
“Stella who? I had to ask Claude because I have never spoken to her or seen her," Karch says. "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."
While that would appear to be him reaffirming the claim that Sacco was not replaced by AI, he goes on to defend the use of AI in Rideshare "Stimulator". He describes it as a "plus for consumers".
"As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone more talented and terminated for a variety of reasons a few months later," Karch says. "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."
Sacco responded to this by standing by her claims, and describing Karch's statement as "remarkably pathetic".
"Everything I said was true," Sacco says. "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."
This is far from the first time Karch has landed himself in controversy. He was previously criticised for defending Embrace Group after its run of disastrous studio acquisitions, resulting in game cancellations, layoffs, overall poor management, and even studio closures.