Hollywood is locking horns with China’s ByteDance over its newly released AI video generator, Seedance 2.0, which has rapidly gone viral for producing ultra-realistic clips of well-known actors and scenes from popular movies and TV shows. The tool — capable of turning text prompts into lifelike short videos — has raised major concerns from U.S. studios and industry groups that say it infringes on copyrighted material and uses performers’ likenesses without permission. This clash highlights broader tensions over who controls generative AI’s development and how intellectual property should be protected in the age of synthetic media.
Shortly after Seedance 2.0’s launch in February 2026, several Hollywood heavyweights, including the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and major studios such as Disney and Sony Pictures, publicly condemned the tool for allowing the creation of video content that mirrors characters and scenes from well-known franchises without licensing. The MPA labelled the model’s behaviour as “unauthorised” and called on ByteDance to stop its activity, arguing that without proper safeguards, AI tools like Seedance undermine copyright law and the livelihoods of creative professionals. Actors’ unions such as SAG-AFTRA also echoed these criticisms, saying the use of performers’ likenesses without consent is unethical and harmful.
Key legal action has followed the uproar. The Walt Disney Company sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing it of building the AI model using copyrighted material without compensation and describing the practice as a “virtual smash-and-grab” of Disney’s intellectual property. Other studios have issued similar legal warnings demanding removal or protection of their content from the AI’s training datasets, underscoring how copyright battles are now central to the future of generative AI in entertainment.
In response to the backlash, ByteDance has said it respects intellectual property rights and is working to strengthen safeguards on Seedance 2.0 to prevent unauthorised use of content and likenesses. However, with Hollywood studios unified in their criticism, the dispute has become a flashpoint in debates over AI regulation, creative rights, and whether existing laws are equipped to handle rapidly advancing generative technologies that can mimic cinematic quality.
