SAG-AFTRA has filed an unfair labour practice charge against Fortnite maker Epic, following its use of AI to recreate James Earl Jones’ voice for Darth Vader.
Prior to his death, actor Jones – who along with Darth Vader also lent his vocal stylings to Disney’s The Lion King as Mufasa – gave permission for his voice to be replicated using AI, and technology was used to generate Vader’s voice in the Disney+ show Obi-Wan Kenobi. Jones’ AI-powered voice as the Star Wars Sith Lord then cropped up again last week, this time in Fortnite, where players could chat with Darth Vader via Epic’s online game.
The AI-generated voice used in Fortnite arrived with permission from Jones’ family, who said they hoped the collaboration with Epic would “allow both longtime fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to share in the enjoyment of this iconic character”. However, soon players began using the technology to get Darth to cuss, resulting in Epic swiftly issuing a hotfix to stop this from happening.
Now, American actors’ union SAG-AFTRA – which represents 160,000 American media professionals, including voiceover artists – has filed an unfair labour practice charge with the NLRB against Llama Productions, which is wholly owned by Epic Games. The union stated the company “chose to replace the work of human performers with AI technology… without providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms”.
In a statement shared last night, SAG-AFTRA said it “[celebrates] the right of our members and their estates to control the use of their digital replicas”, and that it welcomes ” the use of new technologies to allow new generations to share in the enjoyment of those legacies and renowned roles”.
However, the organisation believes it must still protect its “right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members”. It noted this includes actors who have also worked to replicate “Darth Vader’s iconic rhythm and tone in video games”.
In its filing – which you can read here – SAG-AFTRA said Llama Productions via Epic “failed and refused to bargain in good faith with the union”, and it did this 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” for Fortnite.
Eurogamer has reached out to Epic for comment on SAG-AFTRA’s filing.
Actors from SAG-AFTRA have been on strike since July, as the union negotiates with various video game companies on the Interactive Media Agreement. AI has been one of the biggest sticking points of the strikes.
Earlier this year, Mass Effect voice actor Jennifer Hale spoke to Eurogamer about why the strike remains ongoing.
“It’s a huge issue for all of us and the repercussions are vast,” she said. “So to me, it makes sense that everyone needs to take their time. As performers – and we saw this in the writers strike and the theatrical contract strike – we’re just the canary in the coal mine.”
