SAG-AFTRA members have been striking over AI in videogames since July 2024.
Last week, Epic was forced to deploy a hotfix to prevent Fortnite players from tricking its newly-added AI-powered Darth Vader from swearing and saying slurs with James Earl Jones’s voice. Today, AI Vader is the source of yet another controversy: SAG-AFTRA has filed unfair labor practice charges against Epic Games, alleging that the Fortnite publisher’s use of AI-generated voice constituted “unilateral changes” to terms and conditions of employment covered by union bargaining.
“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,” SAG-AFTRA said in a press release. “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.”
Video game performers represented by SAG-AFTRA, which organizes collective workplace bargaining for more than 150,000 actors, journalists, singers, and other entertainment and media professionals, have been on strike since July 2024, when ongoing contract negotiations with videogame publishers and developers collapsed over AI protections.
Epic’s implementation of Fortnite’s AI-powered Vader arrived just days after it, alongside the other videogame companies involved in ongoing strike negotiations, issued a new contract offer to the union. The latest tentative contract removed a so-called “unlimited digital replica buyout”; essentially, under the new offer’s terms, employers would agree to pay performers similar rates for any AI-generated replicas of their performance at similar rates to in-person work.
In its unfair labor practice filing with the NLRB, SAG-AFTRA alleges that Epic’s use of AI-generated voices in Fortnite allowed the publisher to circumvent union bargaining about the terms of protected work.
By “utilizing AI-generated voices to replace bargaining unit work on the Interactive Program Fortnite,” Epic “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,” SAG-AFTRA said.
PC Gamer has reached out to Epic for a statement, and we’ll update this story if we receive a reply.
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