Tim Willits, the chief creative officer at Saber Interactive, weighed in on the controversy sparked by CEO Matthew Karch’s response to allegations that a member of the writing team had been replaced by an artificial‑intelligence tool. The dispute began in August when Stella Sacco, who identified herself as the lead writer for Saber’s upcoming title Rideshare Simulator, publicly claimed that the company had dismissed her and substituted her role with ChatGPT halfway through development.
In reaction, Karch issued a sharply worded reply that dismissed Sacco’s existence, stating, "Stella who? I had to ask Claude because I have never spoken to her or seen her… As far as Stella is concerned, she was replaced by someone more talented and terminated for a variety of reasons a few months later." Sacco countered with her own statement, insisting that her account was accurate and labeling the CEO’s comment as "remarkably pathetic" for a leader to make. When GamesIndustry.biz approached Willits at Gamescom for his perspective on the public feud, he described Karch’s remarks as nothing more than sarcasm.
"That's just Matt's sarcasm, that's all," he said, before moving on to the core issue: the use of artificial‑intelligence technology in Saber’s development pipeline. Willits emphasized that, contrary to the rumors, the studio has never actually replaced a human employee with AI. "That's crazy," he asserted. "We don’t use generative AI for the narrative work in Space Marine, Hellraiser, Stuntman, or any of our other projects." Willitt’s comments did acknowledge that Saber is actively experimenting with AI, but he framed those experiments as exploratory rather than production‑level.
"We’re still figuring out where AI can be effective in the industry, what players will enjoy, and where it actually adds value," he explained. He pointed to Rideshare Simulator as the only title where the company is trialing an "AI mode," noting that the core campaign story, characters, and dialogue were all crafted by human writers. The side missions, too, were authored by people rather than algorithms.
The only AI involvement, according to Willits, lies in ancillary services such as voice generation, certain localization tasks, and an optional "Free Ride" mode that offers AI‑generated passenger missions and localized dialogue. Even the in‑game radio stations blend human‑composed tracks with pieces generated by AI. Willits clarified that Saber does not employ generative AI for fundamental production assets such as code, level geometry, or texture creation. He suggested that while the technology is not yet integrated into core pipelines, the industry is on the cusp of discovering a breakthrough application that will make AI an obvious, indispensable tool for game developers.
"Eventually someone will devise a clever, brilliant use case for true modern AI integration that will make everyone say, ‘That’s it,’ and we’ll all understand its place," he said. He likened the current uncertainty to the early days of any transformative technology, when people question its purpose and potential before it becomes woven into everyday practice.
Looking ahead, Willits expressed optimism that AI will play a more prominent role in upcoming releases. He predicted that by the next Gamescom, larger titles might explicitly focus on AI-driven features, and he is eager to see how those experiments play out both for Saber and the broader market.
"It will be interesting to see where it goes," he remarked. "I bet at next year’s Gamescom we’ll have some bigger games that actually focus on it. I’m curious to see how it works in our Rideshare game, how people respond, and how it can be integrated. It’s a great experiment." The official Steam page for Rideshare Simulator includes a disclosure that the main campaign’s narrative, characters, and dialogue were written by a team of human writers, while AI tools assisted only with voice synthesis and limited localization.
The optional Free Ride mode, however, does feature AI‑generated passenger missions and localized dialogue, and the game’s radio stations combine both human‑made and AI‑generated music tracks. This nuanced approach reflects Saber’s cautious stance: leveraging AI where it can augment the experience without compromising the creative integrity of the core story. In summary, Tim Willits reiterated that no Saber employee has been replaced by an AI system, and that the studio’s current use of generative AI is confined to peripheral tasks and experimental modes.
He positioned the technology as a promising but still experimental tool, awaiting a breakthrough that will define its role in game development. The ongoing dialogue between the company, its staff, and the gaming community underscores the broader industry conversation about the balance between human creativity and machine assistance in the creation of interactive entertainment.