Saber CCO says there’s ‘absolutely no’ GenAI in its licensed games including Space Marine 3, Hellraiser and Jurassic Park Survival
Tim Willits says the AI being used in Rideshare Stimulator is an experiment to “see if it works”
The CCO of Saber Interactive says there’s “absolutely no generative AI” in any of its numerous upcoming licensed games.
Saber found itself mired in controversy last month when CEO Matt Karch publicly insulted a former writer after she claimed to have been replaced on its upcoming game Rideshare ‘Stimulator’ in favour of AI writing tools.
Saber initially responded with a statement denying that it replaced her or any other writer with AI, but stating that it was indeed using AI in the game’s development, something that had not yet been disclosed on the game’s Steam page.
The game’s Steam page was then updated to include an AI generated content disclosure, noting that the game’s main Campaign mode uses AI voice generation, its Free Ride mode contains AI-written dialogue and its radio stations contain “a mix of radio stations featuring human-made music and AI-generated music”.
Now, in an interview with IGN, Saber CCO Tim Willits was asked whether its upcoming game Warhammer: Space Marine 3 would feature generative AI in it, given that its IP holder Games Workshop has been vocally against generative AI and has a strict no-AI policy for its content production and design processes.
Willits responded by claiming that not only does Space Marine 3 not feature any generated AI work, neither does any of Saber’s upcoming licensed titles, including Stuntman: Hollywood (which features Universal movies), Hellraiser: Revival or Jurassic Park: Survival.
“There is absolutely no generative AI in Space Marine 3 or Hellraiser or Stuntman or Turok or Jurassic Park, or [John] Wick,” Willits said, stressing that for Space Marine 3, “we’re good”.
The industry is “still figuring out” AI, Willits says
In a separate discussion with VGC at Gamescom, Willits addressed the Rideshare Stimulator controversy, saying its use of AI in that game is an experiment to see if it works.
“As you know, we’re experimenting with it on a small game, Rideshare, and our AI mode – and I’ve said this a bunch in the last two days – is we, the industry, still figuring out where AI will land, and players and consumers are still trying to figure out where it will land”, he told us. “It’s like any other disruptive technology that society has had to deal with through the evolution.”
He added: “I believe that some developer, some video game company will come up with such a brilliant idea that everybody will look at that idea and be like, ‘that’s it, oh my God, that’s how you use AI”, because we don’t know. I mean, you don’t know how to use AI, I don’t know, you know?
“So we’re doing a small bet and we’ll see how it goes. We’re learning a whole bunch… but that’s on that game. But obviously, we’re not doing it on Space Marine 3 or anything like that. So if people really like it, we’ll be like, ‘Oh, that worked.’ And if people don’t like it, we’ll be like, ‘Oh well, it’s only a small game.'”
