ByteDance’s new AI video tool has only been available for a week, but it's already shaken the moviemaking industry to its core.
Driving the news: Netflix, Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros. all sent cease-and-desist letters to ByteDance over the past week concerning its new Seedance 2.0 video generator, accusing the Chinese tech giant of engaging in copyright infringement to train the tool’s AI model. ByteDance said it’s bolstering safeguards to protect IP, but that hasn’t been enough.
Netflix’s letter was the most aggressive, threatening litigation if a list of demands isn’t met by a three-day deadline that expires tomorrow.
Catch-up: Seedance made immediate headlines upon its release last week when an X user posted a series of hyperrealistic clips depicting Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting (and, for some reason, mentioning Jeffrey Epstein) that the tool generated with just a two-line prompt.
Seedance clips have since popped up across the internet, featuring characters from franchises like Stranger Things and Star Wars (hence the-cease-and-desist letters).
Why it matters: Seedance isn’t the first tool of its kind, but it appears to be leaps and bounds better than earlier generators. The unified front that Hollywood’s biggest studios have put up against it implies that they are well and truly scared of the effects it might have.
Our take: We’re not going to weigh in on whether Hollywood is, as the maker of the Cruise vs. Pitt videos put it, “cooked.” But if the industry is dying, studios won’t let it go without a fight to extract every last drop of value from their precious IP. For AI firms to avoid getting sued into the Stone Age, we expect more deals like the one Disney inked with OpenAI.—QH