Predictably, Fortnite’s AI Darth Vader is already swearing

Update (May 16, 2025, 12:00PM EDT): Epic Games has pushed out a hotfix in order to prevent AI Darth Vader from swearing in response to the clips appearing online.

Original (May 16, 2025, 10:29AM EDT): Fortnite’s v35.10 update added several fun pieces of Star Wars content to the game, such as a terrifying General Grievous skin showing the cyborg with most of his fleshy bits intact. Speaking of cyborgs, though, Epic Games and Disney also introduced an AI-powered Darth Vader to the game with this patch, who acts as a chatbot people can talk to — a nice idea, were the average Fortnite player not as twisted as Palpatine himself.

Of course, the young and impressionable AI is already getting corrupted by the internet. Fortnite players are basically competing against each other to make the poor, innocent Sith Lord say the most heinous things and they’ve already gotten him to swear like a sailor, despite the restrictions put on the AI in regards to certain topics and words. Life, uh, finds a way?

Even the arrogant and naive Jedi from the prequels, their Force senses clouded by Palpatine’s arts of the dark side, could have predicted that outcome.

It’s unclear what Epic Games and Disney’s reaction to these developments is going to be, but given that Disney has a family-friendly reputation to uphold and will not want video footage of one of its most iconic characters saying who-knows-what all over the internet, this might well cut the fun shorter than Vader did the younglings.

The inclusion of James Earl Jones’ voice might ruffle some feathers among fans as well, but the legendary actor gave permission for his voice to be used this way before his death. His family is also on the record in supporting the Fortnite appearance — but, similar to Disney, it’s unclear how long that’s going to last once they hear what people are making him say.

While AI Vader is creating some buzz for the game today, Apple has blocked Fortnite’s return to iOS harder than the Trade Federation cut off Naboo.

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