ByteDance, the Chinese technology company behind TikTok, has said it will put a halt to its AI video-making tool following the threat of legal action from Disney and backlash from other media businesses, according to reports.
SeeDance 2.0, an AI video generator released last week, has sent Hollywood into a tizzy as users create realistic clips of movie stars and superheroes with just a short text prompt.
Many big Hollywood studios have accused this tool of copyright infringement.
On Friday, Walt Disney reportedly sent ByteDance a cease-and-desist letter, accusing ByteDance of supplying a “pirated library” of the studio’s characters, including Marvel and Star Wars characters, according to US news outlet Axios.
According to a BBC report, Disney’s lawyers claimed that ByteDance has “virtually vandalized” their intellectual property.
However, the TikTok owner told the BBC that it “respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding SeeDance 2.0”.
A spokesperson for the company told the broadcaster that it was “taking steps to strengthen existing security measures as we work to prevent unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users”, but declined to provide further details about its plans.
Seedance can generate a video based on just a few lines of text. Last week, Rhett Reese, co-writer of Deadpool & Wolverine, Zombieland and Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, said “it’s probably over for us” after watching a widely circulated AI-generated clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting.
he adds: “In no time at all, a person will be able to sit down at a computer and make a movie similar to the one that is now being released in Hollywood. True, if that person is not good, it will be useless. But if that person has the talent and taste of Christopher Nolan (and such a person will come rapidly), it will be tremendous.”
The first version of the Sedan was launched in June last year.
The Motion Picture Association, the Hollywood trade association that represents studios such as Paramount, Warner Bros. and Netflix, accused ByteDance of “large-scale unauthorized use of US copyright works”. The actors’ union SAG-AFTRA has accused Cedance of “gross violations.”
It’s the latest confrontation in Hollywood amid concerns over the impact of AI on the future of entertainment. Artists and creative industries have sought compensation for the use of their content and the establishment of a licensing framework to enable the legal use of their content.
Last year, Disney and NBCUniversal sued AI image generator MidJourney over what the studios claimed were “endless unauthorized copies” of their works.
However, creative companies are also making deals with AI businesses. Last year, Disney announced a $1 billion equity investment and a three-year licensing agreement in OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT, which enables its Sora video generation tool to use certain Disney characters.
ByteDance and Walt Disney were contacted for comment.
