Fortnite's Foul-Mouthed AI Darth Vader Sparks Major Controversy

In case you haven't heard, Fortnite — the megahit video game from Epic Games that's stuffed with characters from every media franchise imaginable, not to mention real celebrities — has become a cause célèbre after it introduced Darth Vader as an in-game boss. This was no ordinary homage to the "Star Wars" villain. It uses "conversational AI" to recreate the iconic voice of the late actor James Earl Jones, allowing gamers to chat with the Sith Lord and ask him pretty much any question they want. Though it's resulted in plenty of light-hearted fun, gamers, being gamers, immediately set to work tricking the AI into swearing and saying slurs. But that's only the beginning of the controversy, if you can believe it. On Monday, the Screen Actor's Guild blasted Epic Games for its AI Vader stunt and filed an unfair labor complaint against the developer with the National Labor Relations Board, arguing that Epic's use of AI violated their agreement by replacing human performers without notice ... Read full article.