Hollywood isn’t happy about the new Seedance 2.0 video generator

Hollywood organizations are pushing back against a new AI video model called Seedance 2.0which they say has quickly become a tool for ‘blatant’ copyright infringement.

ByteDance, the Chinese company that recently completed a deal to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations (it will retain a stake in the new joint venture), launched Seedance 2.0 earlier this week. The Wall Street Journal reports thisThe updated model is currently available to Chinese users of ByteDance’s Jianying app, and the company says it will soon be available to global users of its CapCut app.

Similar to tools like OpenAI’s Sora, Seedance allows users to create videos (currently limited to 15 seconds) by simply entering a text prompt. And like Sora, Seedance was quickly criticized for an apparent lack of guardrails around the ability to create videos with the likenesses of real people, as well as studio intellectual property.

After one X user posted a short video featuring Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt, which they said was created by “a two-line prompt in Seedance 2,” screenwriter of “Deadpool” Rhett Reese responded“I hate to say it. It’s probably over for us.”

The Motion Picture Association soon came out a statement from CEO Charles Rivkin, demanding that ByteDance “immediately cease its infringing activities.”

“In one day, China’s AI service Seedance 2.0 engaged in widespread unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works,” Rivkin said. “By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is ignoring established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and supports millions of American jobs.”

The Human Artistry Campaign – an initiative backed by Hollywood unions and trade groups – condemned Seedance 2.0 as “an attack by one creator around the world,” while This is reported by the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA it “stands with the studios in condemning the blatant infringement enabled by Bytedance’s new AI video model Seedance 2.0.”

Seedance videos apparently feature Disney characters such as Spider-Man, Darth Vader and Grogu, better known as Baby Yoda, prompting the company to take legal action. Axios reports that Disney has sent a cease and desist order he accuses ByteDance of a “virtual destruction of Disney’s IP” and claims that the Chinese company “hijacks Disney’s characters by reproducing, distributing and creating derivative works featuring those characters.”

Disney isn’t necessarily opposed to working with AI companies. Although it has reportedly sent a defamation letter to Google over similar issues, it has signed a three-year licensing deal with OpenAI.

TechCrunch has reached out to ByteDance for comment.