ByteDance Enhances Safeguards Following Seedance AI Video Controversy

ByteDance is taking steps to bolster safeguards for its Seedance 2.0 video-generation tool after facing significant backlash over alleged intellectual property violations. The Chinese short-video giant announced its commitment to addressing these concerns, which have arisen due to the tool's purported use of copyrighted content to train its artificial intelligence model. Recently, a surge of videos featuring Hollywood celebrities, Disney characters, and comic book heroes generated by Seedance has emerged online, prompting widespread criticism.

Credit: DISNEY

In a notable development, Disney issued a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the company of engaging in a "virtual smash-and-grab" of Disney's intellectual property. This legal action highlights the gravity of the situation, as the new model is reportedly capable of generating videos featuring characters from Disney's Marvel and Star Wars franchises. The South China Morning Post has reported that this move follows strong objections from major Hollywood organisations, including the actors' union SAG-AFTRA, which labelled the model's actions as "blatant infringement". Charles Rivkin, the CEO of the Motion Picture Association, has also called for ByteDance to halt its infringing activities immediately.

Credit: BYTEDANCE

In response to these allegations, ByteDance stated that it respects intellectual property rights and is actively working to enhance its safeguards to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likenesses by users. This commitment comes amid a growing chorus of concerns from foreign governments as well. For instance, Japan's cabinet office has initiated an investigation into ByteDance regarding potential copyright violations, particularly after AI-generated videos featuring popular Japanese manga and anime characters, such as Detective Conan and Ultraman, began circulating on social media. Japan's AI minister, Kimi Onoda, expressed the need to address situations where content is used without the copyright holder's permission.

ByteDance's Japanese subsidiary has indicated that it is taking action in response to the investigation. However, the company has not disclosed the datasets it employs to train its powerful Seedance models. Previously, it claimed that its data-acquisition strategy prioritised ethically and legally sourced content from diverse public and licensed repositories. A technical report for Seedance 2.0 has yet to be released, leaving many questions unanswered regarding its operational practices.

Beyond the alleged intellectual property violations, Seedance has also sparked controversy domestically due to its capability to generate users' voices using only their photographs. A user from Beijing, Shi Yu, expressed her discomfort at seeing a video generated of her with a voice that closely resembled her own, despite only providing a photo. This incident raises significant concerns about personal privacy and the ethical implications of such technology. In light of this criticism, ByteDance has reportedly decided to roll back some personalisation features, temporarily disabling the option to upload real people's faces as references for video generation.

In the lead-up to the Lunar New Year holiday, ByteDance launched several major models, including Seedance 2.0, Seedream 5.0, and a new flagship large language model, Seed 2.0. Unlike other prominent Chinese AI companies, ByteDance has opted not to open-source its flagship models, instead limiting access to its Doubao app and its domestic and global AI content-creation platforms, Jimeng and CapCut. While Chinese large language models still lag behind their American counterparts in overall performance, models for video and image generation, such as Seedance, have consistently performed well in third-party evaluations.

According to Rui Ma, founder of the San Francisco-based consultancy Tech Buzz China, the controversy surrounding Seedance may be part of ByteDance's initial distribution strategy to showcase its underlying technical capabilities. As the situation continues to unfold, the implications for ByteDance and the broader AI landscape remain to be seen.

• ByteDance is enhancing safeguards for its Seedance 2.0 tool following backlash over IP violations.

• Disney has issued a cease-and-desist letter accusing ByteDance of infringing on its intellectual property.

• Japan is investigating ByteDance for potential copyright violations related to AI-generated content.

• Concerns about personal privacy have arisen due to Seedance's ability to generate voices from photos.