ByteDance vows to boost safeguards after AI model infringement claims

Chinese tech giant ByteDance said it was taking steps to “strengthen current safeguards” after Hollywood heavyweights accused its new AI video model of copyright infringement.

Built by TikTok owner ByteDance, Seedance 2.0 has produced Hollywoodesque scenes widely shared online, including of Tom Cruise brawling with Brad Pitt or dozens of different combinations of lifelike stars from superhero movies and video games, some of them watched millions of times.

The Motion Picture Association last week, however, accused Seedance of “unauthorized use of US copyrighted works on a massive scale”.

MPA chairman Charles Rivkin, representing heavyweights like Disney, Universal, Warner and Netflix, said Bytedance’s new AI model “operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement” and “should immediately cease”.

The actors’ union SAG-AFTRA also condemned “the blatant infringement” and unauthorised use of its members’ voices and likenesses enabled by Seedance 2.0.

ByteDance acknowledged concerns regarding Seedance 2.0 in a statement to AFP on Sunday, and said it “respects intellectual property rights”.

It added it was taking steps to “strengthen current safeguards” to prevent “unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users”.

The AI video model is only available for now as a limited test version in China.

Swiss-based consultancy CTOL Digital Solutions hailed Seedance 2.0 as “the most advanced AI video generation model available… surpassing OpenAI’s Sora 2 and Google’s Veo 3.1 in practical testing”.

ByteDance is best known globally as the company behind TikTok, but it is also a major AI player in China.