Fortnite to add even more AI NPCs following Darth Vader incident

Editor’s take: Game developers are actively promoting AI and large language models as the next big leap for the industry. Despite ambitious visions of fully automated characters and self-generating virtual worlds, the current reality falls short and is often limited to profanity-laced chatbots meant to nudge you into pressing a button.

Epic Games recently announced several AI-related updates for Fortnite. Creators still building in the 2017 multiplayer game will soon be able to populate their battle arenas with AI-driven NPCs. However, the integrated chatbots could quickly veer off-script, swearing at or insulting players, much like AI Darth Vader did just a few days ago.

The technology behind that incident is now officially coming to Fortnite, Epic revealed during the recent State of Unreal showcase. Using the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, creators will be able to design new AI characters by configuring their voice, personality traits, delivery style, and more. This new feature, dubbed the Persona Device, is expected to launch later this year.

Epic offered a live demo of what the Persona Device can do during the presentation, showcasing a real-time interaction with an AI character named Mr. Buttons. The bot’s entire purpose was to coax the player into pressing a large red button in the center of the room – relying on every possible cliché to make it happen.

The new Persona Device feature is likely to spark plenty of drama and renewed debate around the use of AI in game development and digital marketplaces. Epic first showcased the technology with an AI-voiced Darth Vader NPC, but players quickly discovered how to make the character swear and insult others – which is, frankly, the least you’d expect from a Sith Lord serving a mass-murdering emperor.

That said, the Darth Vader NPC has already triggered legal action from the voice actors’ union SAG-AFTRA. While the voice was used with permission from James Earl Jones’ family, the union emphasized that its goal is to protect the right to negotiate fair terms for voices that are effectively replacing its (human) members’ work.

Despite the risk of another backlash, Epic is pressing forward with more AI tools for Fortnite’s content ecosystem. The company is currently beta-testing the Epic Developer Assistant, an AI chatbot designed to help UEFN creators write code in Verse, the platform’s custom programming language.

Meanwhile, AI NPCs are expected to get even more diverse and franchise-heavy soon, with Squid Game, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Star Wars all coming to UEFN.