On Friday, Epic Games announced the return of Darth Vader to Fortnite as an in-game boss, this time featuring conversational AI allowing players to chat with him. Epic invited players to ask Vader questions about the Force, the Galactic Empire, or game strategies. However, players quickly exploited the AI, posting clips of Darth Vader using inappropriate and offensive language. For example, streamer Loserfruit captured Vader swearing and making awkward remarks, including confusing references to “breasts” as “armored chestplates. ” Another clip showed Vader uttering a slur linked to queer men, causing excitement among viewers. The AI, powered by Google Gemini 2. 0 and ElevenLabs’ Flash v2. 5 mimicking James Earl Jones’ iconic voice, was designed with multiple safety layers including Google’s safety features and additional Epic instructions to prevent harmful or rule-breaking dialogue. Epic implemented parental controls and policies to filter out swearing and inappropriate language. A spokesperson, Cat McCormack, acknowledged that the AI failed to catch a specific variation of an expletive but noted a hotfix was deployed within 30 minutes. Players attempting to provoke Vader into violating these guidelines will lose the ability to recruit him again during that session, as he will leave their squad.

Epic stated these safeguards were rigorously tested by employees and external experts, with ongoing adjustments based on reports. Despite precautions, the swift emergence of offensive AI responses highlights the current limitations of generative AI in large-scale games, especially those popular with young audiences. Some problematic statements, such as Vader dismissing Spanish as a language for smugglers or creating a “tier list” of skin colors, showed the AI struggled to grasp subtle context. Lucasfilm has yet to comment on the issue. Meanwhile, Epic faced another setback Friday when Apple blocked the latest Fortnite submission, preventing its release on the US App Store and the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union. This continues the long-standing dispute between Epic and Apple over App Store commissions. After Epic circumvented fees by linking purchases outside the app, Fortnite was removed from the App Store. Epic recently resubmitted the game following a favorable court ruling but the game remains unavailable to iOS users. Apple disputed Epic’s account of events. Epic’s launch message for Vader—“This will be a day long remembered”—may prove true, but for reasons quite different from those intended.