By Adam Clark
Artificial-intelligence is coming for Hollywood but Tinseltown isn't taking it lying down. The viral success of a new AI video model from TikTok-owner ByteDance has provoked the ire of Walt Disney.
If you've been on the internet at all in the past week, you might have seen a clip of Tom Cruise engaged in a bruising fight with Brad Pitt. It wasn't an advert for a new movie franchise, but an AI-generated clip using ByteDance's new video model Seedance 2.0.
Seedance 2.0, which was launched Feb. 10, is a pretty impressive model but the real draw has been the fact it will apparently generate videos resembling real people or copyrighted fictional characters. Western video-generating AI models such as OpenAI's Sora or Google's Gemini will generally either refuse to do so or provide versions with more generic characters, following legal action to defend against copyright infringement.
However, ByteDance is now under fire. Disney sent it a cease-and-desist letter Friday, accusing the Chinese company of "hijacking" its characters, The Wall Street Journal reported.
That followed an attack by the Motion Picture Association that last week accused Seedance of "unauthorized use of US copyrighted works on a massive scale." The MPA represents entertainment companies including Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, and Netflix.
ByteDance didn't immediately respond to a Barron's request for comment early on Monday. ByteDance told the Journal that it respected intellectual-property rights and was taking steps to strengthen its safeguards against infringement.
ByteDance recently gave up control of the U.S. version of TikTok to an investor group to resolve national-security concerns.
There's plenty at stake both for AI companies and Hollywood in the fight over copyright. Increasingly, the ability to generate viral images and video has taken center stage for new AI launches and is one of the key ways to acquire a large consumer base. Part of the success of Google's Gemini app has been attributed to the popularity of its Nano Banana image-generator model last year.
Companies are still working out what the commercial model for licensing characters and likenesses should be. Disney and OpenAI said in December they had reached a three-year licensing agreement, alongside a $1 billion investment by Disney in the AI company.
Under the Disney-OpenAI deal, OpenAI's Sora is able to add characters from Disney's franchises -- such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, and Iron Man -- into user-generated videos. However, actor likenesses and voices were still off limits, and Sora's usage has flatlined since then.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 16, 2026 08:42 ET (13:42 GMT)
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