Fortnite Turns To The Dark Side With AI Darth Vader Voice, And Of Course It’s Been Swearing

Update [Fri 16th May 2025, 7:28pm]:

If you needed further proof that this situation is rather poor and disrespectful, PC Gamer has conducted some extra investigations and revealed that, not only have users been “educating” the AI chatbot to curse, but also to utilize slurs. Naturally.

We won’t provide links to the social media posts due to the content in the footage, but as reported by Lincoln Carpenter, an X user named @GasSpares shared a video of an individual getting Darth Vader to use derogatory language.

The official Fortnite account has addressed the clip, stating that the character “was responding to the player’s prompt concerning ‘carcinogens’ in this context” and that the team has “implemented a hotfix” for the matter. However, the AI chatbot remains active in the game.

Kotaku journalist Ethan Gach was also informed by Fortnite’s development team that “A hotfix was pushed within 30 minutes of this incident occurring in-game, so this should not happen again.”

Original Story: Here’s a statement that becomes more troubling the further you read: Fortnite‘s new Star Wars season includes a Darth Vader NPC capable of conversing through the voice of the legendary James Earl Jones via a generative AI chatbot. Forget Imperial Admiral Motti’s uncertainty, we find this unsettling (thanks for the alert, Eurogamer).

If an AI chatbot embedded in a game as popular among children as Fortnite sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, it likely is. In just a few hours, players have already caught the Sith Lord making various inappropriate remarks, including addressing Twitch streamer Loserfruit as a “thug” and using offensive language — indeed, language warning for the embedded tweet below.

As reported by Kotaku’s Ethan Gach, Epic has since released a hotfix to prevent Darth from making such remarks again… at least for now.

Epic collaborated with Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash model and ElevenLabs’ Flash v2.5 model to facilitate these conversations and has secured the rights to use James Earl Jones’ voice (which was assigned to Disney in 2022) to guarantee Vader sounds authentic — or at least, like a generative AI version of Vader.

“James Earl believed that the voice of Darth Vader was integral to the Star Wars narrative and wanted fans of all ages to continue to experience it,” the Jones family shared in a statement on the Epic Games website, “We hope this partnership with Fortnite will enable both long-time fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to enjoy this iconic character together.”

Only players aged 13 and above will be able to interact with Vader without prior parental approval, and Epic has clarified that it will “not utilize any of your engagements with Darth Vader to train AI models.” Any communication you have with the Artist Formally Known As Anakin Skywalker will be securely transmitted to Gemini, Epic assures, and “Your voice audio and its transcriptions are not stored.”

Sure, it’s simply a bit of entertainment, but the overall concept leaves us feeling somewhat uneasy, especially in light of ongoing discussions regarding the impact of AI on the careers of real-life voice actors. We suppose this kind of technology is akin to sand: rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere.

What are your thoughts on this new chatty Vader? Share your opinions in the comments below.