The AI video generator Seedance 2.0 has been condemned for infringing copyrights “on a massive scale” following a viral clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting. Amid the rubble of a ruined city, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise exchange punches and kicks, the setting sun bouncing off the blonde highlights in Pitt’s precisely coiffured ... AI clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fight goes viral, prompting a stern response from the MPA
The AI video generator Seedance 2.0 has been condemned for infringing copyrights “on a massive scale” following a viral clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting.
Amid the rubble of a ruined city, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise exchange punches and kicks, the setting sun bouncing off the blonde highlights in Pitt’s precisely coiffured barnet.
It looks like a scene from a generic, four-quadrant Hollywood movie, but instead it’s a clip generated by Seedance 2.0, the latest AI video app from the same company that makes TikTok.
The 15-second video originated on what was once Twitter, and has since gone viral – it’s received 1.3 million views on that platform alone since it was uploaded on the 11th February.
For Bytedance, the Chinese company behind Seedance 2.0, it’s useful advertising, given that the platform’s name hasn’t previously garnered the same attention as OpenAI’s image generator and social media service, Sora 2.
The clip has also brought Seedance to the attention of the Motion Picture Association, which has denounced the platform for infringing copyright laws “on a massive scale”.
“In a single day, the Chinese AI service Seedance 2.0 has engaged in unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works on a massive scale,” the MPA wrote in a statement published by Variety. “By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs. ByteDance should immediately cease its infringing activity.”
Read more: Avatar | Why AI could be a bigger threat to James Cameron’s franchise than box office
The clips were seemingly generated within hours of Seedance 2.0’s launch, since Bytedance began putting out its official announcement about the platform on the 12th February. The company claims that the software has a new ‘Director Mode’ which allows users to increase consistency of, say, faces between shots – a common problem for previous generative AI models.
It’s once again prompted the same calls to reign in a technology capable of re-creating the likenesses of actors and copyrighted material without consent – and demands that artists and creative communities be compensated if their work has been used to ‘train’ these platforms.
Deadpool screenwriter Rhett Reese highlighted the obvious problem AI poses for the film industry in a widely-shared post, also on once-was-Twitter: “In next to no time, one person is going to be able to sit at a computer and create a movie indistinguishable from what Hollywood now releases.”
Suggested product
Issue #60 Magazine Bundle (3x Covers: A Scanner Darkly Magazine + 1991 + Roger Deakins)
£14.99
Interestingly, the Pitt-Cruise clip was itself created by an established filmmaker: Ruari Robinson, director of the 2013 sci-fi horror film, The Last Days Of Mars, starring Liev Schreiber and Olivia Williams. Robinson was also attached to a live-action Akira movie for a while, and is now a director of commercials and short films.
“This was a 2 line prompt in seedance 2,” he wrote above his viral clip. “If the hollywood is cooked guys are right maybe the hollywood is cooked…”
That clip, and a second one that makes a joke about the deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, triggered a mix of reactions, ranging from intrigue to anger.
“This is pretty disgusting on many levels,” one reply reads.
One of Robinson’s responses highlights the ongoing, heated debate over AI and the change it’s bringing in so rapidly. On one side, there are calls to consider the livelihoods of writers and artists; on the other, there’s Robinson’s argument, which is that we’re all going to have to adapt to a world of low-effort, high-fidelity derivative works.
“…why the fuck would anyone spend 6 months running houdini fluid dynamics sims when they can kick out something better in 2 minutes,” Robinson wrote. “CGI has been stagnant for nearly 30 years and is going the way of stop motion, it just is. I don’t cheer on people losing their jobs, its scary, but its happening and we just need to figure out how to adapt.”
