Late last month, Saber Interactive announced their new title Rideshare Simulator—yes, that’s an odd name, we get it—in which players take on the role of a rideshare driver. You’ll accept ride requests, pick up passengers, and drive them to their destinations while listening to their life stories and various tales along the way.
This simulation game may seem unremarkable, a genre that has been gaining popularity recently, but it appears to harbor a shady secret. According to Stella Sacco, the game’s former lead writer, Rideshare Simulator may be filled with generative AI content.
Earlier today, Sacco posted on the BlueSky social platform, revealing that she had served as the lead writer for the game after seeing its official announcement. However, she stated that Saber Interactive replaced her with ChatGPT midway through development and that the studio may not have disclosed its use of AI on its Steam page.
Furthermore, Sacco claimed that all passenger voices in the game were generated by AI, meaning that both the script and voice acting for Rideshare Simulator may have been produced by AI. The game promotes a casual experience, advertising each passenger’s story as “engaging, humorous, or absurd,” making these revelations particularly questionable.
Of course, Saber Interactive has yet to confirm these claims. Sacco also acknowledged that the team might have shifted its development direction later on, but she holds a screenshot of a Facebook post from 2023, when she first revealed that she was being replaced by ChatGPT.
This news inevitably raises concerns, especially among those worried about AI taking jobs in the gaming industry. But from another perspective, no one expects high-quality writing from a taxi-driving simulation game. If the game does indeed use AI-generated content, we hope Saber Interactive will disclose this information, allowing players to decide for themselves whether to avoid it.
Steam page updated with AI usage disclosure
Following strong public backlash and an official response from Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch, the Steam page for Rideshare Simulator has now added a detailed disclosure of AI usage:
“The story, characters, and dialogue in the main campaign were all created by a human writing team. AI tools were used only for voice generation and partial localization work.
The optional free-roam driving mode features AI-generated passenger missions and localized dialogue. This mode is separate from the main campaign, so players who wish to experience only human-created narrative content can simply skip it.
The game features multiple radio stations, including both human-made and AI-generated music. Stations containing AI-generated tracks are clearly labeled within the game.”