Voice actors union raises unfair labor practice charges against Fortnite's AI Darth Vader

The Association of Screen Actors – The Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) filed unfair labor practice allegations to the National Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (NLRB) after the company implemented the AI-VOCOCED DARTH VADER NPC in Fortnite last week.

complaint, You can view it hereclaiming that over the past six months, Llama Productions (owned by Epic Games) has failed to bargain with the Sag-Aftra video game actors in good faith and made “unilateral changes to employment terms and conditions without notice to the union, or by providing notice to the union, or by replacing Bargaining Sutient’s “replacement of Bargainite” with Bargaining Sutient.

Fortnite AI Darth Vader was added last weekAs an NPC character, you can join or leave your Fortnite squad and have conversations with players through the role of Darth Vader. Although AI Darth Vader has been programmed to support expressing individuals who may struggle with mental health, Epic Games has had to patch it almost immediately after launching Prevent the drop of F bombs.

Darth Vader's character was originally expressed by James Earl Jones He died in September last year at the age of 93. This AI entertainment was done with the blessing of James Earl Jones’s property, whose family said: “James Earl feels Darth Vader’s voice is inseparable from the Star Wars story, and he has always hoped fans of all ages continue to experience it. We hope this collaboration with Fortnite will make long-time fans and new characters the same and enjoy this new entertaining.

But, given the effort to reach an agreement with its video game performers last year, Epic Games’ full use of AI sounds has brought a major problem to SAG-AFTRA. this Video Game Performance Alliance members have already taken a strike for About 10 months Now. The strike was especially due to consent to the AI ​​provisions, even though 24 proposals were confirmed in the other 25 contract proposals. Earlier this year SAG-AFTRA publicly shares fault In the contract, both parties still disagree, saying that the provisions are still “dismasingly far apart”.

In view of this, SAG-AFTRA issued a statement explaining its unfair labor practice allegations against EPIC, essentially claiming that Epic's use of AI undermines the work of human SAG-AFTRA members who have previously or are likely to have worked with Darth Vader's performance. Here is the full statement:

We celebrate the right of members and their estates to control the use of digital replicas and welcome the use of new technologies to allow a new generation to share these legacy and the enjoyment of famous characters. However, we must protect our rights to bargain and conditions around the voice use of alternative work for our members, including those who have previously done work that matches Darth Vader’s signature rhythm and tone in video games.

Fortnite's signing company Llama Productions chose to replace human performers' works with AI technology. Unfortunately, they did so, without providing any intention to do so, and without bargaining with us under the appropriate terms. Therefore, we have filed unfair labor practice allegations against NLRB against Llama Productions.

In case of a lawsuit, the next step will be a review by the NLRB, which may subsequently conduct an investigation and hearing, if the agency believes the allegation is valuable, or if the NLRB believes there is no charge, it will be dismissed. If it is determined that the epic game has implemented unfair labor practices, the NLRB can force it to correct the situation in various ways, such as the possibility of hiring an actor to record a sound for Darth Vader, or remove him from the game altogether, or other punishments. However, these cases usually take months or even years to progress, or can be resolved outside by both parties, while the charges have fallen.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior journalist at IGN. You can find her post on bluesky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Is there a story tip? Send it to [email protected].