Hollywood organizations are pushing again towards a brand new AI video mannequin referred to as Seedance 2.0, which they are saying has shortly develop into a software for “blatant” copyright infringement.
ByteDance, the Chinese language firm that not too long ago finalized a deal to promote TikTok’s U.S. operations (it retains a stake within the new three way partnership), launched Seedance 2.0 earlier this week. According to the Wall Street Journal, the up to date mannequin is at present obtainable to Chinese language customers of ByteDance’s Jianying app, and the corporate says it would quickly be obtainable to world customers of its CapCut app.
Much like instruments equivalent to OpenAI’s Sora, Seedance permits customers to create movies (at present restricted to fifteen seconds in size) by simply coming into a textual content immediate. And like Sora, Seedance shortly drew criticism for an obvious lack of guardrails across the skill to create movies utilizing the likeness of actual folks, in addition to studios’ mental property.
After one X person posted a brief video displaying Tom Cruise preventing Brad Pitt, which they stated was created by “a 2 line immediate in seedance 2,” “Deadpool” screenwriter Rhett Reese responded, “I hate to say it. It’s probably over for us.”
The Movement Image Affiliation quickly issued a statement from CEO Charles Rivkin demanding that ByteDance “instantly stop its infringing exercise.”
“In a single day, the Chinese language AI service Seedance 2.0 has engaged in unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works on a large scale,” Rivkin stated. “By launching a service that operates with out significant safeguards towards infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright regulation that protects the rights of creators and underpins thousands and thousands of American jobs.”
The Human Artistry Marketing campaign — an initiative backed by Hollywood unions and commerce teams — condemned Seedance 2.0 as “an assault one very creator world wide,” whereas the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA said it “stands with the studios in condemning the blatant infringement enabled by Bytedance’s new AI video mannequin Seedance 2.0.”
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Seedance movies have apparently featured Disney-owned characters equivalent to Spider-Man, Darth Vader, and Grogu, higher often called Child Yoda, prompting the corporate to take authorized motion. Axios reports that Disney has sent a cease-and-desist letter accusing ByteDance of a “digital smash-and-grab of Disney’s IP”and claiming the Chinese language firm is “hijacking Disney’s characters by reproducing, distributing, and creating by-product works that includes these characters.”
Disney isn’t essentially against working with AI firms — whereas it has reportedly despatched a cease-and-desist letter to Google over related points, it’s signed a three-year licensing cope with OpenAI.
TechCrunch has reached out to ByteDance for remark.
