Where To Find Fortnite’s AI Darth Vader, Already Swearing And Using Slurs

In a glimpse at the not-too-distant future of video game writing, or lack thereof, Fortnite has just added an AI version of Darth Vader who will respond in real-time to player voice chat.

Within hours, it’s already going the way you might expect. (Update: A statement from Epic – “We pushed a hot fix within 30 minutes of this happening in-game, so this shouldn’t happen again.” But we will see).

Despite a long, long list of commands telling Vader to avoid everything from saying “crap” to discussing political matters to engaging in romantic conversations, players are starting to trick AI Vader into various shenanigans. (You can find him on the map here if you want to find him yourself):

Already, we’ve seen high profile Fortnite streamer Loserfruit (who even has her own game skin) get Vader to say f***ing, while chastising her for using vulgarity. In another clip, players got Vader to say a slur for gay people by referencing it the context of smoking. This is, of course, something that launched just hours ago.

The AI is supposed to only be used if parents “allow written and voice communication with AI features” under parental control, but it’s not as if Fortnite wants Vader saying these things to adults, either. My prediction is that Vader gets taken offline if these things keep happening, as I’m not sure they could inject him with ways to avoid doing this is real-time.

As for the voice, yes, that is James Earl Jones, no, it’s not technically “stolen” as he actually did sign over his voice rights to Disney before he died, and his family has issued a statement about this Fortnite collaboration:

“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 fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to share in the enjoyment of this iconic character.”

I’m not sure what Vader is saying and listening to here might be what he had in mind, but here we are in 2025 with AIs being used in all manner of ways that often break past their planned boundaries.

There are obviously issues past Vaderbreaking here, namely the idea of video game characters using AI voicework instead of actual voice actors, which has been the subject of recent strikes in the industry as signing away voice rights to be used like this is a common request almost no actor wants to agree to, understandably. Sony also recently bragged about a “responsive” version of Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn using AI tech to speak without a script, something that was decried by her actual voice actress Ashly Burch. The Vader situation is unique in that they have the rights, but they wouldn’t with say, Keanu Reeves’ John Wick, as presumably he wouldn’t agree to that. Still, you can see where this is going.

For now, this is just…goof-around shenanigans with Vader who is probably going to just make people laugh 99% of the time, ignoring all these other issues. And that’s really the point, isn’t it. So I wouldn’t expect this tech to slow down at all from here.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.