At first glance, it could be the trailer for a new Hollywood blockbuster starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
“This was a 2 line prompt in seedance 2,” Irish filmmaker Ruairí Robinson clarifies in a caption on X of the 15-second clip, which shows two of the industry’s biggest stars locked in a fistfight on a crumbling rooftop, complete with sweeping camera angles and crisp sound effects.
The viral AI-generated clip has garnered more than 1.8 million views since it was posted on X last week, triggering panic and backlash from Hollywood.
Deadpool screenwriter Rhett Reese reposted the video with the message, “I hate to say it. It’s likely over for us.”
Much has been made of the threat AI poses to a range of industries, including Hollywood. From screenwriters to special effects teams, the dawning realization that the latest tools can now produce highly realistic likenesses alongside high-octane production has only deepened the anxiety among already beleaguered industry insiders.
Reese expanded on his stance in a follow-up X post: “My glass-half-empty view is that Hollywood is about to be revolutionized/decimated. If you truly think the Pitt v Cruise video is unimpressive slop, you’ve got nothing to worry about. But I’m shook.”
The clip was created using Seedance 2.0, a new AI service from ByteDance, the Chinese company that also owns TikTok, which launched last Friday. Upon its release, X was quickly flooded with clips from others trying their hand at generating their own major motion pictures. An alternate ending to Game of Thrones went viral (it has since been taken down), as did riffs on Spider-Man, Shrek, and more.
ByteDance has since promised to tighten the rules governing its new AI tool following intense backlash from Hollywood over copyright concerns. “We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users,” the company told Deadline. (ByteDance did not immediately respond to Fast Company’s request for comment.)
Meanwhile, the studio backlash has been swift and severe. Charles Rivkin, the chairman and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association, which represents the major U.S. studios—Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Discovery—called on ByteDance to “immediately cease its infringing activity.”
“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,” he wrote in a statement last week.
The actors’ union SAG-AFTRA has also accused Seedance of “blatant infringement,” while the Human Artistry Campaign added that, “Authorities should use every legal tool at their disposal to stop this wholesale theft.”
Disney, which agreed in a $1 billion deal last year to bring its characters to Sora, the AI company’s short-form video platform, also sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, according to Axios.
The letter accused the Chinese company of supplying Seedance with a “pirated library” of Disney’s characters. “We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Disney attorney David Singer wrote, “which is shocking considering Seedance has only been available for a few days.”