FORTNITE’S CREATIVE MODE FLOODED WITH AI-GENERATED ART CONTAINING OFFENSIVE IMAGERY
Introduction
If you boot up Fortnite right now and start digging around through the game’s massive amount of user-created content, you’ll quickly notice a strange pattern. Many user-made maps and modes feature AI-generated artwork of large men, often shirtless, smiling, and holding food. Some of these images also feature crude, racist depictions of people. And yet, thousands of players across Fortnite’s platforms are playing these modes, and Epic seems unaware of the situation or isn’t stepping in to remove the offensive images flooding the game.
Fortnite’s Evolution Beyond Battle Royale
Fortnite’s popular battle royale mode launched in 2017 and quickly became a massive success for Epic Games. However, Fortnite has now evolved into much more than just a battle royale. The game encompasses various other games, such as Fortnite Festival, Rocket Racing, and Lego Fortnite. Moreover, it offers a robust content creator that allows players to build new maps and games within Fortnite or in collaboration with friends. With millions of players across console, PC, and cloud streaming, Fortnite has transformed into a free-to-play video game platform.
Exploitation of Fortnite’s Content Creation Platform
Fortnite offers creators a free platform to create and distribute content to millions of players, enabling them to potentially profit if their creations become popular. However, this easy access to a vast audience has resulted in an oversaturation of copycats and clones seeking to exploit the platform’s latest trends. Consequently, Fortnite has become inundated with low-quality content that diminishes the user experience and dilutes the platform’s overall quality.
Fortnite’s AI-Generated Art Problem
Recent trends in Fortnite’s user-created content showcase the utilization of AI-generated images, some of which include racist caricatures of large, shirtless men. Following extensive research using both the official Fortnite website and a third-party platform, Fortnite.GG, over 120 instances of AI-generated images advertising user-made maps were identified.
Exploring user-created content reveals numerous maps with names like “ARAB ZONEWARS,” “Niger ZoneWars,” “Nigerian Zonewars,” “AFRICA ZONEWARS,” and “CHINA Zonewars.” Shockingly, it is disturbingly easy to find images that feature Middle Eastern men holding bombs, black men eating fried chicken, and Mexican men wearing sombreros and eating tacos.
While some of these maps attract only a few players, others gain significant popularity. “Jamaica Zonewars,” the user-made game that likely started this AI-generated art trend, amassed over 35,000 active players. The game’s thumbnail featured an AI-generated image of a large, shirtless black man wearing green, yellow, red, and black. Intriguingly, numerous copycats have spawned since then, with many focusing on other countries and adding supplementary offensive imagery like fried chicken, weed, and monkeys.
Epic’s Lack of Moderation and Player Complaints
Players have increasingly expressed their concerns over Epic’s lack of moderation within Fortnite’s creative maps and modes. Some players believe that Epic’s moderation team is either small or non-existent. Others propose that Epic tolerates this problematic content due to its popularity, attracting more players and generating more revenue for the company.
In response to inquiries from Kotaku, Epic provided a statement reiterating that discriminatory content, regardless of its creation method, is strictly prohibited. The company assures players that its human moderation team reviews all content before publication and is actively updating its island creator rules and moderation training programs to reduce the number of violating maps reaching players.
Epic encourages players to report any islands that may violate their rules and emphasizes that they take enforcement actions against creators who breach the guidelines. They have already removed numerous islands and levied penalties against creators whose maps contained offensive AI-generated art. Epic remains committed to addressing content violations promptly and thoroughly.
Epic’s Position on AI-Generated Art
In the past, Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney has indicated that the company has artists within its ranks and supports game developers with varying perspectives on AI-generated art. Sweeney seeks to position Epic as a neutral intermediary that promotes the advancement of the industry and respects artists’ data.
However, it is impossible to ascertain if all the AI-generated art in Fortnite is created using stolen data. Nonetheless, it is highly likely that many creators are not using their art or training their AI tools to generate the often-racist images that occupy Fortnite’s creative maps. It is disconcerting to witness Epic’s apparent disregard for the influx of offensive art within its platform.
