When Fortnite launched an AI powered Darth Vader bot ‘voiced’ by James Earl Jones, nobody could have seen anything go wrong.
Epic Games has found itself in trouble with America’s rather powerful actors union, SAG-AFTRA, after adding a version of the Star Wars character Darth Vader to Fortnite.
The problem? The character uses AI to replicate the tones of the late James Earl Jones, the late actor who voiced the character in the Star Wars franchise.
The company has licensed the rights to the character from Disney, who in turn licensed James Earl Jones’ voice from the actor in 2022 before his death. At the time, it was announced that he had effectively signed away the rights to his iconic voice – most likely in perpetuity. But AI was just a blip on the horizon, and few of us mere mortals knew just what kinds of issues it might introduce.
Respeecher, the firm which used AI to recreate the actor’s voice for Disney, released a statement at the time, adding that it would “heed his advice on how to stay on the right course.”
Well, now James Earl Jones is no longer here and there’s no advice to heed, that claim seems to have vanished.
As soon as Darth Vader appeared in Fortnite – an online shooter with millions of players worldwide – some users found a way to make the chatbot say unsavoury or even hateful things. All of this in the voice of one of America’s most respected actors, and one of cinema’s most beloved characters. Welcome to the future, folks. Isn’t it great?
SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union in America hasn’t let this move go unnoticed though, filing an unfair labour practice with the Labour Relations Board (NLRB) according to Deadline.
The union is basing its complaint on the premise that ‘the agreement does not extend to others who have also voiced the character.’ Aside from Jones, many other actors have also contributed to the Dark Lord of the Sith’s voice over the years, and the union’s argument is that the agreement would have to extend to all of those actors should it wish to co-opt the character’s voice.
Given what a contentious subject AI is in the creative industries, you can expect America’s labour unions to keep finding ways to challenge the use of the technology in the screen industry, using whatever legal footholds they can find.
The prolonged strikes of 2023 inflicted huge amounts of damage on the industry, mostly to secure safeguards for human artists in the face of an AI onslaught. As such, any and all legal measures will be rolled out to prevent moves like this from becoming commonplace. Where this goes, we don’t yet know but we’ll bring you more news on the subject as we hear it.
