Here's why SAG-AFTRA has lodged a complaint against Epic Games.

In case you haven't heard, Fortnite — the megahit video game from Epic Games that's stuffed with characters from every media franchise imaginable, not to mention real celebrities — has become a cause célèbre after it introduced Darth Vader as an in-game boss. This was no ordinary homage to the "Star Wars" villain. It uses "conversational AI" to recreate the iconic voice of the late actor James Earl Jones, allowing gamers to chat with the Sith Lord and ask him pretty much any question they want.Though it's resulted in plenty of light-hearted fun, gamers, being gamers, immediately set to work tricking the AI into swearing and saying slurs.But that's only the beginning of the controversy, if you can believe it. On Monday, the Screen Actor's Guild blasted Epic Games for its AI Vader stunt and filed an unfair labor complaint against the developer with the National Labor Relations Board, arguing that Epic's use of AI violated their agreement by replacing human performers without notice."Fortnite's signatory company, Llama Productions, chose to replace the work of human performers with AI technology," SAG-AFTRA said in a statement. "Unfortunately, they did so without providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms." SAG-AFTRA is still on strike against the video game industry, though actors are still allowed work on Fortnite and some other exempted projects, . Voice actors, in general, have struggled to win the same protections against AI as other performers in other fields. It's easier and far cheaper to fake someone's voice and pass it off as real than it is to mimic a visual performance.For this stunt, Epic used Google's Gemini 2.0 model to generate the wording of Vader's responses, and ElevenLabs' Flash v2.5 model for the audio.Whatever your thoughts on the ethics of resurrecting a dead actor's voice with AI, no theft is involved with Epic's AI Vader  — just, if SAG is to be believed, dubious labor practices. It was created in collaboration with Jones' estate, according to an Epic press release featuring a statement from the family. Jones, shortly before he passed away, signed a contract with Disney allowing the AI startup Respeecher to clone his voice. That's all fine with SAG-AFTRA. It doesn't necessarily have a problem with actors — or their estates — licensing AI replicas of themselves. "However, we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members," the union wrote, "including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader's iconic rhythm and tone in video games."We'll have to see what the labor board and Epic make of SAG-AFTRA's claims. In the meantime, it's pretty jarring to see an AI version of Jones' legendary Vader performance out in the wild and answering silly questions in a video game.More on AI: Even Audiobooks Aren't Safe From AI SlopShare This Article

Force Pushback Fortnite's AI Darth Vader hasn't just created problems for Epic by being Jedi mind-tricked into saying bad words, it's led SAG-AFTRA to file an unfair labour practice charge "We must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members." Image credit: Epic News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 20, 2025 Late last week, Fortnite got a Darth Vader chatbot you can squad up with and have stilted AI-powered conversations that use James Earl Jones' actual voice. It's not just said a bunch of stuff it wasn't supposed to - it's now led the SAG-AFTRA union to file unfair labour practice charge. If you weren't around last week, Epic quickly had to issue a patch to the bot - which has been made with the approval of deceased Vader VA Jones' family - not long after it was released into the wild, because players had managed to get it to say stuff it shouldn't. You know, swears, slurs, and chatter about breasts. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Fast forward to last night, when voice acting union SAG-AFTRA issued a statement on the AI Vader bot, challenging Epic on it being a thing and revealing that it's filed an unfair labour practice charge with the US National Labour Relations Board. "We celebrate the right of our members and their estates to control the use of their digital replicas and welcome the use of new technologies to allow new generations to share in the enjoyment of those legacies and renowned roles," the union wrote, acknowledging Jones' estate having approved the bot, "However, we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members, including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader's iconic rhythm and tone in video games. "Fortnite's signatory company, Llama Productions, 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. As such, we have filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB against Llama Productions." VG247 has reached out to Epic for comment. So, we'll have to see what, if anything comes of the union challenging Llama Productions over allegedly not providing it notice of its plans to use AI to create AI Vader. It's yet another chapter in the union and many voice actors' efforts to secure protections against the use of AI to mimic voices, which it's been argued presents an existential threat to their profession. After all, as the union argues here, getting another actor to deliver voice lines for Fortnite Vader that sound like Jones would have been an alternative option to using AI her. Though as I've said, Epic and Llama did secure the right permission from those representing the AI-emulated actor's interests. How do you feel about AI Vader? Let us know below.

Fortnite is in the middle of a Star Wars season, which has boasted a rapidly growing roster of heroes and villains from the sci-fi classic. However, one of the newest outfits is notably weird even by Fortnite standards: You can now play as Darth Jar Jar, but you'll need to grind a lot of XP to be able to buy the skin.In a recent blog post, developer Epic Games announced a number of accessories for evil Jar Jar that are now available to purchase. These include a wrap, a pickaxe, a back bling, and the full outfit. However, these specific items are locked behind XP benchmarks, which players can earn in any Fortnite mode. To unlock the ability to buy all of the items, you'll need to amass 1,280,000 XP. Depending on how committed to grinding out XP you are and the modes you play, this will likely take at least several hours of gameplay to earn.In addition, once you hit these XP benchmarks, you'll still have to shell out V-Bucks. In total, the Darth Jar Jar item set costs 3,200 V-Bucks (roughly $26); if you just want the outfit, that costs 1,500 V-Bucks (roughly $13).Continue Reading at GameSpot

Just Why UPDATE: Fortnite's now letting people squad up with a Darth Vader AI chatbot for, sigh, reasons, so of course streamers have already made it swear and talk about boobs Heads up: if you're under 13 (this varies by region), you'll need to get your parents' permission to ask this thing why it exists. Image credit: Epic News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Updated on May 16, 2025 UPDATE (16/05/25, 5:20 PM BST): Kotaku's Ethan Gach reports that Epic Games has already pushed an update to try and stop people being able to make AI Vader say the F word. "We pushed a hot fix within 30 minutes of this happening in-game, so this shouldn’t happen again," the publisher said. I'm so tired. Here we go. It's 2025, so Fortnite now includes a Darth Vader chatbot you can have stilted AI-powered conversations with after recruiting him into your squad. Naturally, a streamer has already managed to get it to say a bad word and talk about boobs. I shouldn't be surprised. This game already has Tesla's shitty Cybertruck in it. At least people in the US who only game on their Iphones are being spared for now. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Strategize with the ultimate Sith Lord. With your voice. And he’ll respond back using conversational AI," reads Epic's announcement that this - which uses Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash model and ElevenLabs’ Flash v2.5 model to deliver AI-generated chatter using James Earl Jones' actual voice - is a thing. Perhaps the one silver lining, though it's not really a silver lining because it helps normalise this kind of thing, is that the late actor's estate has given its permission to let Epic do this. "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," reads a statement from Jones' family, "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." "Ask him all your pressing questions about the Force, the Galactic Empire... or you know, a good strat for the last Storm circle. The Sith Lord has opinions," Epic says. So, what are people asking him? Well, Australian streamer Loserfruit has already managed to get the Vader chatbot to swear, call them "Mummy", and talk about breasts, the latter of which you can see in the clip below. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. It's also enquired if a Rebel Alliance of Skibidi Toilets exists in a chat with another player. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. It's still early days too, and you can only imagine the kinds of things certain people are and will be trying to get it to say. Oh, it's also worth noting that because laws exist, Epic's Vader chatbot FAQ makes it clear that "players under 13 or their country’s age of digital consent, whichever is higher" will need to get their parents' permission to be able to talk to AI Vader. It's like a depressingly 2025 version of getting your mum to approve you hopping on Club Penguin, except this time they're saying yes to a parental control to “allow voice and written communication with AI Features” Epic's added to the game's settings and some other places detailed in the FAQ. That's it. This is a thing.

Epic Games has withdrawn its initial submission for Fortnite to return to the iPhone App Store in the US, after Apple failed to approve the game for launch this week. Read more