Last week, Epic Games added a Darth Vader NPC to its battle royale game, Fortnite, as an AI-voiced character. Trained on the voice of James Earl Jones, who is the voice of Vader in the Star Wars movies and elsewhere, it didn’t take long for players to get this NPC Vader to say curse words and slurs, as reported by PC Gamer. Now, three days later, SAG-AFTRA has filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against Epic-owned signatory company, Llama Productions.
However, it’s not because Fortnite is using AI to give Vader a voice per se. According to the complaint filed today, SAG-AFTRA claims Epic replaced bargained union voice work with this AI without notice, thereby breaking terms and conditions supposedly agreed on by both SAG-AFTRA and Epic.
“Within the past six months, the Employer, by its agents and representatives, failed and refused to bargain in good faith with the union by making unilateral changes to terms and conditions of employment, without providing notice to the union or the opportunity to bargain, by utilizing AI-generated voices to replace bargaining unit work on the Interactive Program Fortnite,” the complaint against Llama Productions reads.
Disney
In a statement released following this filing, SAG-AFTRA says, “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 these legacies and renowned roles. 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.”
The company says Llama Productions chose to replace human performers’ work with AI technology but did so “without providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms.” As such, SAG-AFTRA has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the company with the NLRB.
Jones’ family is aware that an AI voice trained on him was added to Fortnite, as they released a statement confirming they collaborated with Epic to make this happen. They write, “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 excitement of this iconic character.”
Game Informer contacted Epic Games for comment and will update this story if it hears back.