Fortnite players can speak with Darth Vader through a James Earl Jones-voiced AI

is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years. When Fortnite players meet Darth Vader in the game’s ongoing Star Wars event, they will be able to speak with the Sith Lord directly, and he’s going to respond with a voice that sounds exactly like James Earl Jones. Though Darth Vader has previously appeared as an NPC (and a battle pass skin) in Fortnite, Epic Games announced today that the character’s latest outing will be a bit different thanks to the use of AI. After finding and defeating Vader on the map, players can recruit him onto their teams and speak directly with him using Fortnite’s in-game audio chat functionality. And Vader will respond in an AI recreation of James Earl Jones’ iconic voice whose answers vary depending on what players. Per a FAQ about the interactive feature, Epic says that Vader’s answers will be based on audio recordings of player’s voices th ... Read full article.