Saber Interactive, the developers behind titles like World War Z and John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, has been under heavy scrutiny following a former employee’s claim that she was fired from development of Rideshare “Stimulator” in favor of ChatGPT.
While the company initially denied the claims, the situation only got stranger when Saber Interactive CEO, Matthew Karch, gave a baffling statement mocking the former employee and claiming that an unknown (and unnamed) writer is behind the entire script of the upcoming game.
Rideshare “Stimulator”, despite officially announcing that AI is being used in a gameplay capacity, still has not added an AI disclosure on their Steam Page – despite Steam’s policy.
How did the Saber Interactive-AI situation begin?
The Saber Interactive-AI situation all began with the announcement of Rideshare “Stimulator”, a self-described driving simulator in which players can “build your rideshare business while navigating real-world traffic, managing your vehicle, and transporting a wide range of unique passengers.”
Stella Sacco, who according to LinkedIn has worked as a narrative designer or writer for various gaming studios for over a decade (and specifically for Saber Interactive from July 2023 to July 2024), posted on her BlueSky account following the official announcement of Rideshare “Stimulator” on August 11.
Her post read, “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”.
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) 2026-08-11T15:04:59.056Z
Saber Interactive’s Corporate Response
In response to Sacco’s post, Saber Interactive gave a statement to PC Gamer through a spokesperson denying the use of AI for the story, but admitting its use for some gameplay features: “Neither Saber not 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, none of our 3000+ employees have to worry about being replaced by AI.”
However, Sacco dismissed this message from Saber, stating to PC Gamer, “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.”
When this edict came down, I warned Matt Karch, who made the AI push, that players hated AI in Dec. 2023 and they’d hate it even more by the time the game came out. I told him this pushback would happen. He didn’t listen to me, he didn’t listen to my boss, he seemingly didn’t listen to anyone at all
— Stella Sacco (@antlervel.vet) 2026-08-12T00:29:12.607Z
Sacco referenced Saber Interactive Matthew Karch specifically in an additional post on BlueSky, writing “when this edict came down, I warned Matt Karch, who made the AI push, that players hated AI in Dec. 2023 and they’d hate it even more by the time the game came out. I told him this pushback would happen. He didn’t listen to me, he didn’t listen to my boss, he seemingly didn’t listen to anyone at all”.
Matthew Karch gets (weirdly) involved
Once his name was invoked, Matthew Karch jumped into the fray after This Week in Videogames followed up with Saber Interactive for a comment. Rather than stick to the stuffy-yet-professional style of earlier statements, Karch opted to instead mock his former employee, bizarrely claim that the script was written by a special, secret person, and state that the use of AI is actually a good thing for potential players.
Karch stated, “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. 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 father 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’s final reply
Since then, Sacco did post once more on social media, writing, “I’ve seen the statement by Matt Karch, the CEO of Saber Entertainment, and all of the truly horrendous things he said about me. I think it should be obvious to anyone who reads that statement that he’s lashing out because he did not want people to know there was AI use in the game.”
“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.”
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) 2026-08-12T23:58:26.125Z
Since that last exchange, the official Saber Interactive accounts have been silent and Sacco has made no further comments on the situation.
