When AI casts Tom Cruise

Chinese tech giant ByteDance said it is taking steps to “strengthen current safeguards” after Hollywood heavyweights accused its new AI video model of copyright infringement.

Built by TikTok owner ByteDance, Seedance 2.0 has generated Hollywoodesque scenes widely shared online, including clips of Tom Cruise brawling with Brad Pitt and other lifelike mashups of superhero and video game stars. Some of the videos have garnered millions of views.

The Motion Picture Association last week accused Seedance of “unauthorized use of US copyrighted works on a massive scale.”

MPA chairman Charles Rivkin, representing studios including Disney, Universal, Warner and Netflix, said ByteDance’s AI model “operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement” and “should immediately cease.”

The actors’ union SAG-AFTRA also condemned what it called “the blatant infringement” and unauthorized use of its members’ voices and likenesses enabled by Seedance 2.0.

ByteDance acknowledged the concerns in a statement to AFP on Sunday and said it “respects intellectual property rights.” The company added that it is taking steps to “strengthen current safeguards” to prevent “unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users.”

The AI video model is currently available only as a limited test version in China.

Swiss-based consultancy CTOL Digital Solutions described Seedance 2.0 as “the most advanced AI video generation model available… surpassing OpenAI’s Sora 2 and Google’s Veo 3.1 in practical testing.”

ByteDance is best known globally as the company behind TikTok, but it has also emerged as a major artificial intelligence player in China.