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Video game voice-actor union SAG-AFTRA are launching a legal case against the presence of generated AI voice-acting for Darth Vader in Epic’s battle royale Fortnite. They’re accusing the company’s subsidiary Llama Productions of using AI to “replace the work of human performers” – or at least, of replacing human performers without first haggling out terms with the union.

The AI-voiced Vader character was added to Fortnite last week, in collaboration with the family of James Earl Jones, the original voice of Darth. Track down and recruit him and you’ll be able to take turns generatively bantering with Fauxnakin. Needless to say, the addition has proven a hit among the furiously masticating hamsters of social media. Also needless to say, players have swiftly worked out how to bait DAIrth VAIder into dropping F-bombs
and slurs, though at the time of publication, Epic appear to have addressed this in a patch.

Now, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have filed an unfair labour practice charge against SkAIwalker Senior with the US National Labor 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 in a statement. “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,” it continues. “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.”

The court document itself claims that Llama Productions have “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”.

SAG-AFTRA – who represent a spectrum of workers across the media and entertainment sphere – have often gone to bat with the video games industry over the usage of human voice-acting to “train” bots, and the potential replacing of voice-acting in games with genAI. Following a lengthy negotiation over AI protections with the likes of GTA 6 publisher Take-Two and Call Of Duty household Activision, they called a strike last July in the name of “fair compensation and the right of informed consent”. The strike continues. Some video game voice and performance artists have, however, criticised SAG-AFTRA for striking deals with individual genAI companies.

All this forms part of the wider, on-going debate about the ethics and legalities of generative AI – our Electric Nightmares essay series remains a good primer. While voice actors contest the loss of work, other organisations are picking fights with the genAI biz over copyright infringement.

According to an Epic Games blog post, the Darth Vader chatbot in Fortnite makes use of two AI models – Google’s Gemini and ElevenLabs’ Flash. Gemini was recently hit by a $271 million fine over copyright breach, with France’s competition watchdog accusing the search engine company of “training” the bot with material from publishers and news agencies without notifying them. Google have pledged not to contest these facts as part of settlement proceedings.

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