Amid the recently concluded litigation between Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton and the game's original developers following leadership changes and a subsequent 2026 delay – Subnautica 2's former leads claim they're owed a whopping $250 million – accusations involving AI chatbot ChatGPT have surfaced. As a quick recap – Unknown Worlds (the studio behind the development of Subnautica 2) founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, along with former CEO Ted Gill, claimed that they're owed money for hitting revenue milestones after Krafton's $500 million acquisition in 2021. More recently, the three devs accused Krafton lead Kim Chang-han of using ChatGPT "to help him brainstorm ways to avoid paying the earnout." Ousted Subnautica 2 founders fight Krafton over ChatGPT records as the publisher accuses them of deleting and stealing data: "'Make sure there's nothing incriminating'" Subnautica 2 studio was working on a secret game code named Project Labrador before Unknown Worlds leads were fired, and ex-CEO says he still hopes "to see that game come to light" "To say Krafton's new theory is a Hail Mary would be an understatement": Former Subnautica 2 studio leadership allege publisher Krafton has changed "its story mid-litigation about why it fired the founders" Kim explains, via translator, that he first "started discussing this matter with various teams within the company to find – to figure out what we could do," when asked how he reacted to learning Cleveland and McGuire weren't directly involved in Subnautica 2's development. "So I talked to the legal team, the finance team, and the corporate team, and the PR, all these various teams," Kim continues. Then comes ChatGPT. "And I also actually searched on ChatGPT to get faster answers to figure out what kind of rights we have." Kim is asked why he would consult with the chatbot on such a matter, to which he responds, "I think, just like everyone else, I am using ChatGPT to get faster answers or responses, just like Google search." During cross-examination, lawyers representing the past Unknown Worlds executives point to a specific example of Kim's use of ChatGPT. In a June 2 message to Maria Park, Krafton's head of corporate development, Kim included a link to ChatGPT and referenced the advice it gave him: "Now, ChatGPT [is] start[ing] to answer that it is difficult to cancel the earnout," he wrote. "If so, this is a contract under which we can only be dragged around." Although this instance of chatbot usage was deleted afterward, the Unknown Worlds attorneys say others from the same period weren't. Kim replied that he deleted such chats as he "learned" that "if you use certain important information concerning your company, then that type of information can be used by OpenAI for learning purposes." He isn't wrong – but it's certainly an interesting statement considering the situation at hand as a whole, as well as Krafton's recent surprise rebranding as an "AI first" company… one it said comes with "the era of AI transformation." Subnautica 2 studio was working on a secret game code-named Project Labrador before Unknown Worlds leads were fired, and ex-CEO says he still hopes "to see that game come to light"