Employee claimed she was replaced by ChatGPT. CEO: "It would have been better to replace her with AI"
Senior writer Stella Sako accused Sabre Interactive of replacing her with AI during the development of Rideshare Simulator. CEO Matthew Karch responded sharply to the allegations, stating that the firing was justified.
Source: Sabre Interactive
Are we witnessing the first high-profile case where AI replaces writers in the gaming industry, as many feared and predicted? A senior writer claims this is the case and publicly accuses the development company where she worked of replacing her with an AI model, but the company's CEO has a sharp, direct, and unconventional answer that is now igniting a whole new scandal.
Employee claims: ChatGPT replaced me
Stella Sako served as a senior writer working on the intriguing game Rideshare Simulator, developed by the gaming company Sabre Interactive (which was previously part of the Swedish gaming giant Embracer). In the game, which does not yet have an official release date, you step into the shoes of a driver for a ride-sharing service in the style of Uber or Lyft, meet different characters around the city, and have to perform various trips and missions.
Several days ago, Sako published a post alongside the game's launch trailer and wrote: "I was the lead writer for this! And then Sabre replaced me with ChatGPT in the middle of the development process. All the characters' voices were also done with AI. Either they changed direction at some point or they are not mentioning it on Steam."
Sabre's parent company was quick to issue a statement to the site The Verge. The company noted that the game will integrate an "experimental mode" that will include the use of AI to offer an infinite number of passengers. In other words, some of the scenarios and some of the voiceovers will be created using AI tools to allow for infinite content in the game that will not repeat itself. But, at the same time, the company categorically rejected Sako's claims that she was replaced by ChatGPT: "While the gaming industry is shrinking, Sabre has continued to hire employees. None of our 3,000 employees should fear being replaced by AI."
Sako, for her part, did not remain silent and responded to the American media outlet:
"You cannot say simultaneously that 'writers wrote the plot' and also that 'computers wrote the plot.' If scenarios that I wrote are in the game, and scenarios that the AI wrote or will write will also be part of it – then I was still replaced, exactly as Sabre told me they were doing in December 2023."
CEO turns on the afterburners
If you thought this would end with cautious PR statements, you were wrong. Sabre CEO Matthew Karch decided to sharpen the tone in an interview with the site This Week in Videogames:
"As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone much more talented than her, and there were several reasons for her firing. From what I understand, she enjoys creating scandals even more than I do."
But if you thought that was painful, the CEO added:
"In retrospect, I think it would have been better to replace her with AI. At least then we would have been working with someone programmed to be honest."
In response to these unflattering remarks, Sako continued to stand her ground and claimed that her words were the absolute truth. "This is a response that would be pathetic if it came out of the mouth of any CEO. Together with the use of AI, it will damage Sabre's reputation much more than my reputation," she concluded.
