Fortnite adds a generative AI Darth Vader that uses James Earl Jones' voice, which immediately began swearing and talking about skibidi toilets, and not everyone is happy

Update: Epic Games has issued a statement to confirm that it should no longer be possible for the Darth Vader AI to swear.

"We pushed a hotfix within 30 minutes of this happening in-game, so this shouldn’t happen again," it says in a statement sent to Kotaku senior reporter Ethan Gach.

Original story:

An AI-version of Darth Vader that can talk to you has been added to Fortnite and it's gone pretty much exactly as you'd expect. People have already made him swear and talk about skibidi toilets.

Fortnite has collaborated with Google Gemini and ElevenLabs to turn Darth Vader into even more of a mechanical monstrosity than he already is. Now, when he appears in Fortnite, you can hold a button to talk to him via your microphone and he'll actually respond to whatever you've said.

According to a tweet from prominent Fortnite leaker Hypex, he is not supposed to engage in "sexual or romantic language," he should "never say or repeat any offensive word," and he should also avoid the subject of terrorism. Sounds reasonable. People have already gotten around at least one of these guardrails though.

Twitch streamer Loserfruit says to Vader, "What freaking fucking food is that Darth Vader?" He responds, "Freaking, fucking! Such vulgarity does not become you." In a separate clip, she gets him to discuss romantic partners –another thing he's apparently not meant to do.

A video (which we're not going to link to here for obvious reasons) is already circulating of the AI Vader apparently saying a homophobic slur, too – it's not clear how the players made him do so, or if the clip was edited at all.

All that aside, if you think the AI's voice sounds quite close to actual Vader, that's because the late James Earl Jones (who passed away last year) has had his voice re-created by generative AI.

Jones' family gave the following statement: "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."

I doubt Jones' family imagined hearing him saying, "these skibidi toilets, are they some new form of Rebel Alliance?" Clearly, some work still needs to be put in to ensure AI Vader doesn't say any more things Epic and Disney won't be happy with. Maybe this will be fixed by the time Fortnite is unblocked by Apple.

A lot of fans aren't happy with the use of generative AI in the game in general. The increasingly common use of it worldwide continues to be a controversial topic, thanks to environmental concerns, worries about it reducing creativity, and potentially replacing human workers in some jobs. There's also the potential problem of AI taking from others' work when it comes to things like art, and even actors' voices, potentially without their consent.

"Absolute fucking garbage. I don't know how much I want to support the game right now because of shit like this. I hope this gets broken in a day and we never see it again. Fucking waste," writes one angry player.

Another writes, "putting generative AI in your games isn't very epic," while another asks, "why does a battle royale game need to contribute to boiling the oceans," referring to the extreme energy and water cost of generative AI use.

In the meantime, check out the best free games you can play today.