Being racist in 2024 (and here come worn-out formulas like “I’m not racist but”) is being very behind in history. And yet, even if they are just a few, they shout a lot and make us believe they are legion. Now they have dedicated themselves to filling ‘Fortnite’ with their nonsense, with a double twist that makes it even more painful: using artificial intelligence… and making money from it.
Opening watermelons in Fortnite
As soon as you start taking a look at the content created by users, you will realize not only that there is an insane amount of AI-generated content, but also that it is represented by the most offensive images possible of fat men in three dimensions created by MidJourney and so racialized that they resemble those 60s playing cards of ‘Families of 7 countries’. Stereotypes that have become as worn out as the cards themselves but that some are not willing to let die.
And of course, what happens happens: thousands of people play every day in maps where there are Arab sheiks about to blow themselves up with a bomb belt, Mexican men with a mariachi hat eating a giant taco, African Americans eating chicken or particularly thin African children. Surprisingly, no one in ‘Fortnite’, a game for the whole family that is especially played by children, has done anything to moderate this content.
As the game has grown (and become much more than just ‘Battle Royale’), so has its player base: it is undoubtedly one of the titles that have marked the modern history of video games. And to reward its community, Epic has decided to pay everyone who creates their own successful creations. And this has led, of course, to the proliferation of artificial intelligence, cyber trash, and zero moderation in this regard (at least until they have been called out on it). At Epic, they are focused on something else and the content is so massive that without large-scale hiring, they can’t do anything.
The worst part is not that, but that this racism created by AI has become a trend. For example, the map that started it all, Jamaica Zonewars, had 35,000 active users almost a month ago, and, of course, everyone has tried to copy it with all kinds of racist and terrible content. On the other hand, at Epic, after the controversy broke out, they have already deleted a good number of these islands created by AI, and they claim that they will continue to do so in order to prevent ‘Fortnite’ from being the last stronghold of a handful of people who still believe that memes from 2005 are still funny now.
