Azernews.Az

Nazrin Abdul

Read more

A new artificial intelligence (AI) model from the Chinese tech giant ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, is making waves in Hollywood, not just for its capabilities, but for what it could mean for the creative industries.

As reported by AzerNEWS, citing the BBC, the AI, Seedance 2.0, can generate cinema-quality videos, complete with dialogue and sound effects, from just a few written prompts. Clips reportedly created with Seedance featuring popular characters like Spider-Man and Deadpool have gone viral online.

Major studios, including Disney and Paramount, quickly accused ByteDance of copyright infringement. But experts warn that the implications go far beyond legal concerns.

What is Seedance and why the buzz?

Seedance was initially launched in June 2025, but its second version, released eight months later, has captured global attention.

“For the first time, I’m not thinking that this looks good for AI. It looks like a real production pipeline,” says Jan-Willem Blom from creative studio Videostate.

Unlike Western AI video tools, Seedance combines text, visuals, and audio in one system. While platforms like MidJourney and OpenAI’s Sora can generate videos from short prompts, Seedance is notable for producing high-quality clips from minimal input, sometimes a single sentence.

AI ethics researcher Margaret Mitchell notes, “It’s impressive because it integrates text, visuals, and audio in a single system, producing results that feel like a real film.”

Seedance has even been tested by generating videos of Will Smith eating spaghetti—complete with a spaghetti monster scene—and the results look like big-budget productions. David Kwok, head of Singapore-based Tiny Island Productions, calls it “like having a cinematographer specializing in action films assisting you.”

Opportunities and challenges

Seedance has sparked concerns over copyright and ethical use. AI companies are increasingly creating powerful tools without paying for the data used to train them. Disney and Paramount have issued cease-and-desist letters demanding that Seedance stop using their copyrighted characters. Japan is also investigating ByteDance over videos featuring popular anime characters.

ByteDance has said it is “strengthening current safeguards,” but copyright disputes are not unique to the company. In 2023, the New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for using its articles without permission, and Reddit filed a similar claim against Perplexity.

Experts stress the need for clearly labeled content, licensing mechanisms, and public trust. As Mitchell explains, “Labelling content to prevent deception is more important than cooler-looking videos.” Disney, for instance, struck a $1 billion deal with OpenAI’s Sora to legally use Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel characters.

Transforming low-budget productions

Despite legal risks, small studios see Seedance as a game-changer. Kwok notes that AI of this quality allows companies to create films that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive.

Asia’s short-form videos and micro-dramas, often produced on budgets of around $140,000 for 80 episodes under two minutes, have typically focused on romance or family drama to minimize visual effects costs. With AI, these low-budget productions can now explore genres like sci-fi, period drama, and action.

“Seedance elevates what was once financially impossible for small studios, enabling ambitious storytelling at a fraction of the cost,” Kwok says.

As AI video tools like Seedance advance, the creative industry faces a critical crossroads: balancing innovation, accessibility, and copyright protections while navigating a rapidly changing landscape.