LEGO Fortnite has followed in Fortnite’s footsteps and debuted AI-voiced minifigure NPCs in Brick Life that will react to players’ actions.
LEGO Fortnite’s Brick Life mode now has two AI-voiced NPCs for players to interact with for a limited time – Slurp Leviathan and Noir. Their dialogue is generated using Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash model, and their audio is generated by ElevenLabs’ Turbo 2.5 model.
Players cannot directly speak to the NPCs, but actions such as gifting them items and performing emotes can cause them to react accordingly. You can mute both NPCs by directly interacting with them, and they are only in Brick Life for a limited time.
This follows Epic Games debuting the same technology with an AI-voiced Darth Vader in the Star Wars: Galactic Battle season of the battle royale mode. That NPC differed in that players could directly speak to Darth Vader, and he would respond accordingly.
Offering players the chance to speak directly to the AI led to some clips online where Darth Vader would respond in inappropriate ways, including slurs and swearing at players.
Actor union SAG-AFTRA filed a complaint in response to the AI-voiced Darth Vader NPC, alleging that the company made ‘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’.
By removing the ability for players to directly speak to these LEGO NPCs, the risk of them saying inappropriate things is lessened, but not removed, as one such instance has been documented. Days after the NPCs were added to Brick Life, a clip featuring Noir seemingly swearing in response to an emote was shared on X.
The LEGO Fortnite account responded quickly, stating: “No swears were said in the appreciation of your dance moves. Noir was just really excited about you choosing to go with the feelin’ royal emote, he didn’t enunciate the ‘n’ in ‘royal flush of funk’ properly.”
The LEGO Group previously published a NINJAGO quiz that used generative AI images, drawing criticism from fans in response to seeing the quiz, even after it was taken down entirely.
The LEGO Group’s statement on the usage of AI-generated images in the quiz reads: “We have a clear policy not to use generative AI to create LEGO content. We fundamentally believe in the wonder and power of human creativity and will continue to encourage and celebrate the talented artists who help bring our brand and characters to life.”
“These images were used in a test which happened outside of our usual approval processes, and we will take all necessary steps to ensure that it won’t happen again. We believe generative AI offers interesting opportunities and we will continue to explore how we can use it to improve the experiences we offer and our ways of working.”
You can interact with these two AI-voiced NPCs within Brick Life now for a limited time. LEGO Fortnite’s latest update ties in with the new Super season of the battle royale, adding LEGO Styles for Robin, Superman (based on the 2025 movie) and more.
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