ByteDance said it is working to “prevent the misuse of intellectual property” by users of its new AI tool SeaDance 2.0, following complaints from studios and Hollywood industry groups.
In a statement to the BBC, ByteDance said: “We respect intellectual property rights and have heard your concerns about SeaDance 2.0.”
The statement added: “We are taking steps to strengthen our current safeguards to prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property and likeness by our users.”
Released last week, Seedance 2.0 sparked alarm in Hollywood after users began posting deepfake clips generated by the tool that included likenesses of actors and movie characters such as Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. star wars, lord of the rings and other functional properties.
The clips prompted criticism from the Motion Picture Association of America and Actors Guild SAG-AFTRA, as well as a cease-and-desist letter from the Walt Disney Company.
Most recently, Paramount Skydance reportedly sent its own cease and desist letter to ByteDance accusing the studio of copyright infringement on the following properties: star trek and spongebob square pants.
“It is self-evident that our intellectual property was used to train the models underlying these tools,” Paramount’s letter said, according to the report. “Such training was also done without our consent and is a violation of the law. To be clear, Paramount strongly opposes the use of our legally protected copyrighted material in any of the ways described above (both as input trained by this type of model and as works created by the model) without our express permission.”
