Hollywood is Freaking Out, But ByteDance Says it is Curbing AI Video Generator Seedance

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An AI video of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting each other has shaken Hollywood.

After Seedance 2.0, made by TikTok’s creator ByteDance, was released last week, several AI videos featuring Hollywood IP went viral across the internet. It prompted Disney to send a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance. Now the company says it will pull back.

Nevertheless, Hollywood appears to be rattled by the emergence of Seedance. Deadpool writer Rhett Reese said last week that, “In next to no time, one person is going to be able to sit at a computer and create a movie indistinguishable from what Hollywood now releases.”

Charles Rivkin, chief executive of the Motion Picture Association, says that ByteDance “should immediately cease its infringing activity”. In its letter to ByteDance, Disney accused the Chinese firm of “blatant infringement” of its copyright.

Yesterday, ByteDance told the BBC that it “respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0.” Adding that, “We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users.”

The letter that Disney sent to ByteDance was addressed to the company’s global general counsel, John Rogovin, who, as Copyright Lately notes, was the general counsel of Warner Bros. Entertainment for over a decade.

That one of its own is general counsel at ByteDance will no doubt be reassuring to Hollywood because what exactly would stop a Chinese company from infringing on movie IP? Copyright Lately points to an infringement lawsuit brought by Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and NBCUniversal against another Chinese AI firm, MiniMax.

“Five months in, the plaintiffs are still working to serve the complaint under the Hague Convention — a process that in China can take up to two years just to reach the starting line,” writes Aaron Moss. “And while MiniMax’s Hailuo AI is available in the United States, Seedance so far is not, raising the more fundamental question of whether U.S. copyright law can meaningfully reach it.”

That ByteDance has responded at all must assuage some fears in Hollywood, which is now going through what photography has been dealing with for the past 12 months: AI is getting really good at imitating its art.