Actors' union sues Fortnite over AI use of Darth Vader

Hollywood's actors' union, the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), has filed an unfair labour practice charge against Epic Games' Llama Productions. 

In a court filing seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, the union alleged that Llama Production replaced actors' work by using artificial intelligence (AI) to create Darth Vader's voice in Fortnite without notice.

"Within the past six months, SAG-AFTRA, by its agents and representatives, failed and refused to bargain in good faith with the union by making unilateral changes to terms and conditions of employment, without providing notice to the union or the opportunity to bargain, by utilising AI-generated voices to replace bargaining unit work on the interactive program Fortnite," said the union in the court filing. 

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In a separate statement, it said that Llama Productions chose to replace the work of human performers with AI technology. "We celebrate the right of our members and their estates to control the use of their digital replicas and welcome the use of new technologies to allow new generations to share in the enjoyment of those legacies and renowned roles," said SAG-AFTRA. 

"However, we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members, including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader's iconic rhythm and tone in video games," it added. 

According to SAG-AFTRA, this was done without providing any notice of intent and without bargaining appropriate terms. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Epic Games for a statement. 

Fornite previously announced the Darth Vader feature on Friday (16 May). According to its FAQ on the feature, the dialogue of Darth Vader's responses are generated using Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash Model while the audio itself is generated by ElevenLabs' Flash v2.5 model. 

In its announcement, Fortnite said that it received permission from the family of actor James Earl Jones as well as his estate to use his voice. "Darth Vader wouldn’t be nearly as sinister without the legendary performance of James Earl Jones, who voiced Vader in the Star Wars films. We’re honoured to feature the voice of the late Mr. Jones and we thank his estate for the opportunity to make this happen for players," said Fortnite. 

The family of Jone was also quoted: "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 both longtime fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to share in the enjoyment of this iconic character." 

This comes after SAG-AFTRA publicly released new proposed terms to protect actors against generative AI practices. In a statement issued on 2 May, the union clarified terms such as changing "voiced dialogue" to "vocal material". It also sought for clearer tracing of performances to ensure timely payments. 

SAG-AFTRA's concerns over the use of AI is also reflected in today's consumers, especially those based in Asia. Recently, a study by YouGov found that almost half of consumers (48%) in Hong Kong, Indonesia and Singapore are concerned about the loss of human touch in AI.

With an influx of AI-generated content online, one in 10 consumers are uncomfortable with generative AI being used for news formats. Indonesians are consistently more comfortable with generative AI usage across all news formats, such as imagery (58%), video (56%) and audio (51%). Following closely are Hong Kongers while Singaporeans are the least comfortable. 

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