Fortnite Lets Darth Vader Talk to You with AI (And Players Already Broke It)

UPDATE: SAG-AFTRA has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Epic for its use of A.I. for Darth Vaders' voice in Fortnite saying "Fortnite's signatory company...chose to replace the work of human performers with A.I. technology. Unfortunately, they did so without providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms."

Key takeaways:

• In Fortnite’s latest update, Darth Vader has been added with an ability to communicate with players thanks to conversational AI

• Vader can respond to players in the voice of the late James Earl Jones thanks to an agreement between Epic Games and the late actor’s family

• Jones’s family stated “James Earl felt that the voice of Darth Vader was inseparable from the story of Star Wars, and he always wanted fans of all ages to continue to experience it. We hope that this collaboration with Fortnite will allow both longtime fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to share in the enjoyment of this iconic character.”

Epic Games

The controversy:

• While Fortnite initially programmed Vader with the inability to use foul language or talk about killing younglings, streamers immediately began to find ways around the safeguards

• Within 30 minutes of clips surfacing online, Fortnite issued a patch to stop the AI Vader from uttering curse words, slurs, and other profanities encouraged by players

• This update comes shortly after Lucasfilm and ILM came under fire for the use of generative AI in a TED Talk about the future of Star Wars technology

Vader is currently available to recruit in Fortnite’s Season of the Force, and players can submit bug reports if further unapproved language is discovered.