As part of both Fortnite's current Star Wars-themed season and the larger tech industry push to crowbar AI into anything and everything with even the most niche possible use case, a new manmade horror beyond our comprehension has been born. Apropos of nothing, Fortnite recently dropped an AI-powered Darth Vader NPC into the battle royale's sprawling island – and while NPC squadmates that you can pick up to recruit your changes are nothing new for the game, the generative AI that powers Vader very much is.
With Darth VAIder in your squad, you can speak to him in voice chat just as you would a real player, receiving generated responses delivered in a ghoulish facsimile of the late James Earl Jones' voice. While this was meant for an extra level of interactivity, such as commenting on the player's equipped skin, it has naturally taken no time at all for players to get Vader to start saying slurs, make sweeping assumptions about Mexicans, and let out a few good old-fashioned F-bombs.
It's hard to imagine that this is what James Earl Jones had in mind when he signed away the rights to Darth Vader's voice, or that Epic Games didn't see any potential for this kind of abuse. Resurrecting actors and throwing them to the Fortnite audience of all people is an afterlife that would make Black Mirror blush. This is bleak – is it too much to ask for the AI bubble to burst already?
