Tom Cruise battles Brad Pitt in stunningly realistic AI video as Hollywood’s top screenwriter warns the industry is about to face major challenges from rapidly evolving new technology, but the MPA slams the company behind the model.
The 15-second video (watch below) depicts the two A-listers exchanging blows on a rooftop. This video was posted two days ago by Irish filmmaker Ruairi. Robinson was nominated for an Oscar in 2002 for the short film.
Robinson pointed out that his video was created by simply typing a two-line prompt into SeaDance 2.0, which is owned by TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance.
The MPA called on the company to curb its “infringement” of copyrighted works. “In a single day, Chinese AI service Seadance 2.0 committed massive misappropriation of U.S. copyrighted material,” said Charles Rivkin, president and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. “By launching a service that operates without meaningful protections against copyright infringement, ByteDance is ignoring established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and supports millions of American jobs. ByteDance should immediately cease its infringing activities.”
On Friday, the actors union SAG-AFTRA similarly condemned ByteDance, saying, “Violations include the unauthorized use of members’ voices and likenesses. This is unacceptable and undermines the ability of human talent to earn a living. SeaDance 2.0 ignores the fundamental principles of law, ethics, industry standards, and consent. Responsible AI development requires accountability, and that is absent here.”
The video gained industry attention after screenwriter Rhett Reese.deadpool & wolverine, zombieland) discovered this video and posted an extensive discussion of X earlier this week.
“I hate to say it,” Reese wrote. “It’s probably the end for us.”
When a fan derided the video as still “shit,” Reese responded, “Soon, one person will be able to sit down at a computer and make a movie indistinguishable from anything Hollywood is putting out right now. Sure, it sucks if that person sucks. But if that person has the talent and taste of Christopher Nolan (and people like him are rapidly emerging), that’s going to be tremendous.”
Just in case some people took his “tremendous” comments as optimism about technology’s impact on the industry, Rees added: “To be clear, I’m not at all excited about AI encroaching on creative endeavors. In fact, I’m horrified. So many people I love are facing the loss of careers they love, and I myself am at risk. When I wrote, ‘It’s over,’ I didn’t mean it to sound blunt or flippant. The Pitt vs. Cruz video looked so professional that that’s exactly what scared me. If you really think the Pitt vs. Cruz video is unimpressive, I have nothing to worry about. ”
“Hollywood has long been a gatekeeper, keeping young people and poor people away from creative outlets. When young people with no resources try to impress Hollywood, they will use tools like this, and a young Chris Nolan will be among them. And great. “I suspect (I might be wrong) that a lot of screenwriters are using AI a lot in their writing, and a lot of executives are using AI a lot in their writing analysis, so it’s funny that people are just sitting there watching,” Reese said. Because the AI is criticizing something it just created. ”
The comments come as AI insiders sound the alarm about the impact of their technology, particularly on employment.
Entrepreneur Matt Schumer wrote a disturbing viral post titled “Something Big is Happening” that compared the current moment to the months just before the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States.
“What technology workers have experienced over the past year, watching AI go from being a ‘useful tool’ to ‘doing your job better than you,’ is what everyone else is about to experience,” he wrote. “Law, finance, medicine, accounting, consulting, writing, design, analysis, customer service… If you tried ChatGPT in 2023 or early 2024 and thought, ‘This works,’ or ‘This isn’t that impressive,’ you were right… The models available today are indistinguishable from the ones that existed six months ago.”
