Epic is updating its EULA to allow AI training on outputs from Unreal Engine

Imran Khan,Contributing Editor

October 27, 2026

schedule3 Min ReadImage via Epic Games

Epic's EULA will be changing in the future as the company works to remove restrictions on training AI off the outputs from Unreal Engine and Metahuman, according to a post on X (formerly Twitter) from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney.

On October 26, video game outlet Kotaku published a piece in which the site called out the potential hypocrisy of companies like Microsoft and Epic going all-in on AI coding and technology while simultaneously shutting down user-made AI-coded recreations of their games and software.

Sweeney responded to the article with a long post in defense of Epic's accused hypocrisy on the subject, where he casually dropped news about the planned EULA update.

Epic's EULA currently does not allow any output from Unreal Engine or Epic's MetaHuman, Epic's 3D animation software. According to Sweeney, Epic is working to change to allow this, but is leaving the results with individual games up to the developers' discretion.

"Does Epic restrict AI training on outputs of Unreal Engine and MetaHuman?" Sweeney writes. "Yes currently but we are working to remove this restriction from EULA terms, though each game using these tools is released under terms of the developers’ choosing which can allow or restrict AI training."

This is a marked change in the use of Unreal Engine, which had previously not allowed any use of the engine for AI to train itself. As Epic shifts to what the company calls an "AI-first" model, however, they seem to be blurring that once-bright line.

The article argues, using quotes from Sweeney, that there is not a functional difference between Epic pursuing an AI-first development model that presumably relies on stolen data and users doing the same thing by creating, say, a browser-based version of Epic's own Fortnite.

"This conflates a number of different things. Here is a breakdown of the separate components of what is happening," the post begins. "Does Epic let people use Fortnite IP without permission or compensation? No."

The latest tweet is another in a seeming recent accelerating trend for Sweeney, who has spent much of the last week on X responding to concerns about and evangelizing the use of AI in software development.

Epic Games' CEO has been on an AI-first posting spree

The latest tweet is another in a seeming recent accelerating trend for Sweeney, who has spent much of the last week on X responding to concerns about and evangelizing the use of AI in software development. Most notably, Sweeney used the discussion around AI to take a swipe against online PC storefront competitor Valve and the company's choice to require an AI disclosure on store pages for Steam.

"Forcing developers to write a political statement to be used against them by the hate mob they’re helping organize is abhorrent," Sweeney wrote in response to a post chiding Valve for having the disclosure requirement at all. Separating software from political statements is a cause that Sweeney is well-known for championing, though Valve itself does not characterize its disclosure requirements as being political statements.

Social media is nothing new for the Epic CEO, who has been posting his thoughts on X for many years and sometimes making major policy announcements on his own account. However, his frequency has jumped considerably in the last two weeks, with Sweeney posting 11 times in the last 24 hours, and over 50 times in the last week.

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About the Author

Imran Khan

Contributing Editor

Imran Khan has been in the games industry in various forms for over two decades. He has been a former senior editor at Game Informer, a professional loudmouth at Kinda Funny, and news director at Fanbyte. He has also been doing PR for Vicarious PR and Head of U.S. PR for Japanese VR studio MyDearest, in addition to Producer work on their latest title Brazen Blaze.

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