Disney Showdown: ByteDance Pulls AI Video App
Disney escalates legal battle over AI copyright infringement as ByteDance faces 7 major claims tied to Seedense and Hollywood studios.
Following threats of legal action from Disney and complaints from other entertainment companies, Chinese technology giant ByteDance has promised to ban a controversial artificial intelligence (AI) video-making tool.
In recent days, videos created using the app's latest version, SideDance, have seen a surge in views online. Many have been praised for their authenticity.
But this trend has also raised concerns among several Hollywood studios, who have accused the AI platform's creators of copyright infringement.
On Friday, Disney sent ByteDance a cease-and-desist letter, accusing it of supplying a "pirated library" of the studio's copyrighted characters, including Marvel and Star Wars characters.
Disney lawyers accused ByteDance of engaging in a "virtual smash-and-grab" of their intellectual property, including superheroes from Marvel, Star Wars, and several cartoons.
On Monday, ByteDance said the company "respects intellectual property rights and has heard concerns about Seedense 2.0."
"We are taking steps to strengthen existing safeguards to prevent users from using intellectual property and likeness without permission."
ByteDance did not respond to questions seeking details about the safeguards it plans to implement.
Like other generative-AI tools, Seedense can create videos based on short text prompts.
Many of Seedense's clips are based on real actors and shows, and some have gone viral since the launch of its latest 2.0 version on February 12.
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Clips found online, allegedly created by Seedense, show Star Wars characters Anakin Skywalker and Rey battling with their lightsabers, and Spider-Man battling Captain America on the streets of New York.
The company has not disclosed what data it uses to train Seedense.
ByteDance previously stated that the product has already disabled users from uploading images of real people.
The company also stated that it respects intellectual property rights and copyright protection, and takes any potential infringement seriously.
Disney's legal threat comes after other Hollywood organizations criticized the Seedense platform.
The Motion Picture Association, which represents major US studios such as Warner Bros., Discovery, Paramount, and Netflix, has demanded that the tool "immediately cease its infringing activity."
The actors' union SAG-AFTRA has also accused Sidence of "blatant infringement."
Meanwhile, the Japanese government has launched an investigation into the Chinese firm for potential copyright infringement after AI-generated videos of popular Japanese anime characters surfaced online.
Other AI image-generation tools have faced similar legal action.
Last year, Disney and NBCUniversal sued the AI image generator MidJourney, accusing the platform of making "countless unauthorized copies" of the studio's copyrighted works. The case is ongoing.
Disney has also asked Google to stop generating its characters on Google's AI platform.
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