Fortnite: Suspicions of AI Use in New Chapter

Fortnite Battle Royale Chapter 7: Pacific Wave has just debuted on platforms worldwide: the v. 39.00 update, as always, introduced a plethora of new features that we have already discussed HERE.

Immediately after the launch, however, controversy quickly arose: several users complained that, in their opinion, various new Assets, especially among the posters and Sprays, were created using extensive Generative Artificial Intelligence.

it raises suspicion and I don't think it's fair to criticize those that question this kind of stuff pic.twitter.com/JFJp0ynmeO

— WayComet (@WayComet) November 30, 2025

Particularly suspicious are the drawing of the smiling tomato, some repeated images on posters, as well as a man's feet peeking out from a hammock, one of which regularly shows 5 toes and the other only 4.

Several people also pointed to an artwork of Marty McFly, specifying that one of the clocks in the background did not show the correct numbers: in this case, the author of the image himself, a freelance artist who signs himself andthankyou on Instagram, partially denied the theory by showing a work-in-progress montage, admitting, however, that he took the clock images from the web and therefore might have picked one made with AI without realizing it.

Fortnite, AI, and the Controversy

To channel the topic and prevent the entire Fortnite subreddit from being flooded with similar reports, administrators promptly opened a dedicated mega-thread. In general, it is a fact that the community is unhappy with the hypothesis that AI may have been used so extensively: in a poll with over 2000 voters, only 4% expressed themselves in favor of this new technology, and while this sample is hardly reliable given the context in which the poll was conducted [to draw a parallel, it would be like going to the official channel of an Italian football team and asking fans if they prefer that team or its historical rival], it is undeniable that the novelty has stirred up quite a bit of trouble.

For its part, Epic Games has not released any statements: however, it is not to be excluded that the matter was already clarified by the SH last week, when CEO Tim Sweeney spoke negatively about Steam's policy which obliges creators to report the use of AI in their products.

Agreed. The AI tag is relevant to art exhibits for authorship disclosure, and to digital content licensing marketplaces where buyers need to understand the rights situation. It makes no sense for game stores, where AI will be involved in nearly all future production.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeney) November 26, 2025

"The AI tag is relevant to art exhibits for authorship disclosure, and to digital content licensing marketplaces where buyers need to understand the rights situation. It makes no sense for game stores, where AI will be involved in nearly all future production."

Writing such a sentence obviously justifies, in Sweeney's and Epic's eyes, the use of technology even for internal products, such as Fortnite. So no surprise if things were actually so...