Unprecedented alarm bells are being sounded in Hollywood about today’s news that ByteDance has launched the second generation Seedance 2.0, an AI video generation tool. This new model soon became infamous for producing videos that feature widely recognizable copyrighted figures and likenesses without consent. It has come under fire as a result, with serious allegations of widespread and blatant copyright infringement.
Anthony Ha, our weekend editor over at TechCrunch, recently wrote about the eerily dystopian implications behind this technology. Seedance 2.0 has already produced videos that showcase Disney-owned characters such as Spider-Man, Darth Vader, and Grogu, commonly known as Baby Yoda. The tool’s unprecedented power to create new media content at no cost with these mainstream figures is what has sparked concern among Hollywood stakeholders.
Charles Rivkin, the CEO of the Motion Picture Association, expressed alarming disappointment. He called out that literally in one day, the Chinese AI generative service Seedance 2.0 violated the equivalent of as much as 10 trillion U.S. copyrighted works. Rivkin took ByteDance to task for rolling out such a service without robust protections against infringement. He contended that this decision erodes foundational copyright principles, essential for upholding creators’ rights.
The Seedance 2.0 model is now available to users of ByteDance’s Jianying app in China. It’s promised to be deployed to users around the world through the CapCut app soon. This expansion would only increase the already alarming harms associated with copyright infringement and intellectual property misuse.
Critics quickly slammed Seedance 2.0’s initial rollout. They claim that it does not have enough guardrails to prevent the use of real people’s likenesses in generated videos without permission. The Human Artistry Campaign decried the move as “an assault on every creator, artistic and academic, on our planet.” Most importantly, they noted the precarity that this represents for the broader creative industry.
Rhett Reese, a notable figure in Hollywood, expressed his frustrations with the situation, stating, “I hate to say it. It’s likely over for us.” This feeling is reflective of the anxiety that many on the ground in the industry share. They fear what these AI tools—like Seedance 2.0 below—might do to radically undermine their livelihoods.
Anthony Ha is based in New York City and has a long and varied history with TechCrunch. He’s worked as a technology reporter at Adweek and senior editor at VentureBeat. Prior to that, he was vice president of content at Plum Alley Ventures, a women-led, impact-focused venture capital firm. He started his career as a local government reporter for the Hollister Free Lance. If you have further questions or need to verify his credentials, feel free to email him directly at anthony.ha@techcrunch.com.
