The Tamesis
Chinese tech giant ByteDance has vowed to add better protections to its viral AI video generator Seedance 2.0 after videos it produced starring American actors and performers sparked a backlash in Hollywood.
Videos generated via Seedance 2.0 have gone viral in China since the model was released last week, with users praising its high-quality output and ability to create cinematic storylines with just a few prompts.
in a videoRapper Ye (born Kanye West) and his ex-wife Kim Kardashian were seen singing in Mandarin.
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Another features an AI-generated Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in a brief but polished fight scene. “You killed Jeffrey Epstein, you animal,” Pitt told Cruise during a bloody brawl.
Jeffrey Epstein knew too much pic.twitter.com/12u8PQH9nt
— Ruairi Robinson (@RuairiRobinson) February 11, 2026
One YouTube user also posted a clip Showing an AI image of actress Kristen Stewart running through a hospital hall trying to escape zombies, old Hollywood-style action music plays in the background.
Likewise, a filmmaker posted on a clip One sketch depicts comedian Larry David’s artificial intelligence, which he says was generated via a one-line prompt.
Another clip features “Star Wars” actors Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman reprising their characters from the films in a sketch that ironically criticizes the global push to build more data centers to support artificial intelligence.
The clip’s creator, Charles Curran, said “summarize the AI utterance in a meme, make sure it’s retarded and get 50 likes” as the only prompt he used to generate the video.
Seed Dance 2.0
Tip: Summarize the AI utterance in a meme – make sure it’s retarded and gets 50 likes. pic.twitter.com/09yPdo3Tjy
— Charles Curran (@charliebcurran) February 14, 2026
Swiss consultancy CTOL Digital Solutions said the model “outperformed OpenAI’s Sora 2 and Google’s Veo 3.1 in real-world tests.”
The organization says it’s “the most advanced artificial intelligence video generation model available.”
“Blatant infringement” of intellectual property rights
The level of detail in the generated videos, and the model’s ability to develop dialogue and storylines without the need for detailed prompts, has led many users to compare Seedance to DeepSeek – China’s groundbreaking open source artificial intelligence model, Shocking Silicon Valley a year ago.
In Seedance’s case, however, Hollywood is uneasy.
On Friday, The Walt Disney Company reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the Chinese company of using Disney characters to train and develop Seedance 2.0 without permission or compensation. Report by Axios.
respectively, Reuters reports Disney accused ByteDance of pre-packaging a library of pirated copyrighted characters from series such as “Star Wars” and “Marvel” into Seedance. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that the video generator depicted them as public domain clipart.
The letter said Seedance was copying, distributing and creating spin-offs featuring Spider-Man, Darth Vader and other characters, the person added.
in statement AFP ByteDance acknowledged concerns about Seedance 2.0 and said it “respects intellectual property rights.”
“We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards in an effort to protect users from unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness,” the company said.
But it did not detail the steps being taken.
“Nothing is more terrible than the terrible”
In addition to Disney, Paramount Skydance also sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the company of “blatant infringement” of its intellectual property, Variety reported.
The Motion Picture Association of America, the main U.S. lobby group representing film studios, also accused Seedance of “unauthorized large-scale use of U.S. copyright works,” according to AFP.
MPA chairman Charles Rifkin, which represents heavyweights such as Disney, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and Netflix, said ByteDance’s new AI model “operates without effective safeguards against infringement” and “should be stopped immediately.”
SAG-AFTRA, the Screen Actors Guild, also condemned Seedance 2.0’s “blatant infringement” and unauthorized use of its members’ voices and likenesses.
popular screenwriter reed reese told the New York Times In an interview, Pitt’s fight scene with Cruise “sent chills down his spine.”
“I just think it’s absolutely terrible … I can see it causing job losses everywhere,” he said.
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