Gaming CEO Turned to ChatGPT to Dodge $250 Million Bonus. It Failed.

(SeaPRwire) –   When Changhan Kim, CEO of the South Korean gaming firm Krafton, sought a solution to an expensive acquisition agreement, he bypassed his legal team and consulted ChatGPT. This incident stands as a stark warning regarding AI’s role in corporate decision-making, culminating in a Delaware judge’s order for the company to reverse its actions.

A Delaware judge determined that Kim utilized ChatGPT to orchestrate the removal of Ted Gill, CEO of Unknown Worlds Entertainment—the independent studio behind the underwater survival game Subnautica—from the company, aiming to circumvent a $250 million bonus payment.

“Fearing he had agreed to a ‘pushover’ contract, Krafton’s CEO consulted an artificial intelligence chatbot to contrive a corporate ‘takeover’ strategy,” Delaware’s Court of Chancery Vice Chancellor Lori Will stated in a ruling issued on Tuesday.

In 2021, Krafton, the publisher of the global hit PUBG: Battlegrounds, acquired Unknown Worlds Entertainment for $500 million. The deal included a provision for an additional $250 million earn-out bonus if the studio’s highly anticipated sequel, Subnautica 2, achieved specific sales targets. The contract also guaranteed Unknown Worlds’ autonomy, with cofounders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, along with Gill, retaining operational control, subject to removal only for legitimate cause.

While achieving and surpassing sales targets is typically beneficial, Krafton encountered difficulties when its internal sales projections indicated Subnautica 2 was on track to trigger that payout. When Maria Park, Krafton’s head of corporate development, informed Kim that a “dismissal with cause” would not absolve the company of its $250 million bonus obligation without exposing it to “lawsuit and reputation risk,” Kim turned to an AI chatbot for advice.

Kim, privately referring to the deal as a “pushover,” bypassed his legal team and sought assistance from ChatGPT. When the AI chatbot initially responded that the earnout would be “difficult to cancel,” the ruling noted, Kim did not accept this answer. He pressed further, and the chatbot then provided a detailed, multi-stage corporate takeover strategy, which was named “Project X.”

Project X

ChatGPT advised Kim to establish an internal task force to either renegotiate the earnout or force a studio takeover. If negotiations failed, it suggested securing Steam and console publishing rights and control over the game’s code, framing the entire conflict as being about “fan trust” and “quality” rather than financial concerns, and preparing systematic legal defense materials while documenting all communications. The chatbot even proposed drafting a public-facing message to win over Subnautica fans—a message Kim then asked ChatGPT to compose. This strategy backfired dramatically, alarming the gaming community and intensifying suspicions that something was seriously amiss at the studio.

Throughout this process, Kim’s own team cautioned him about the strategy’s dangers, but Kim proceeded nonetheless. Cleveland, McGuire, and Gill were all removed from their positions without what the court determined was legitimate cause.

Will concluded that Krafton had improperly ousted the Unknown Worlds leadership, and emphasized that company executives are expected to exercise independent human judgment—not delegate good-faith decisions to an AI. Gill has now been ordered reinstated as CEO, with the authority to bring back the cofounders. The earnout period has been extended to account for the disruption.

Neither Krafton nor Unknown Worlds responded to ’s requests for comments. As of Tuesday morning, Krafton’s contact page was “temporarily offline.”