Faced with Hollywood's anger, ByteDance suspends the global launch of its Seedance 2.0 video AI.

ByteDance planned to accelerate its generative AI video development internationally, but the schedule has just been abruptly revised. TikTok's parent company has suspended the global launch of Seedance 2.0, the popular model capable of generating sequences from text, images, audio, and video. Indeed, criticism from Hollywood, where several major studios are denouncing potential infringements of copyright and image rights, is said to be the cause of this halt. But the issue goes far beyond the simple case of a new AI tool, because with Seedance 2.0, ByteDance is highlighting one of the main points of contention in the industry: how far can artificial intelligence go when it reproduces the appearance, voice, or world of well-known figures and works? Viral videos that quickly sparked controversy: The affair gained momentum after the circulation of Several demonstrations on social media, including a video showing a fictional fight between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, particularly garnered attention. The scene was obviously never filmed, but its realism was enough to reignite concerns about the use of celebrities in artificially generated content. Presented as ByteDance's most advanced video model, Seedance 2.0 had already been launched in China in February. The company then planned a wider international rollout, notably via an API for developers and creators. But according to The Information, these plans were halted after studios like Disney, Paramount, Skydance, and more recently Netflix, issued numerous cease-and-desist letters.

These companies accuse ByteDance of not sufficiently regulating the generation of content inspired by protected licenses, characters, or performers. Furthermore, the model's training data is also being called into question, beyond the results produced by users.

ByteDance promises safeguards before any release outside of China

For now, the suspension mainly concerns the global launch of Seedance 2.0 and its availability to foreign developers.

Today, the model remains primarily accessible in China via the group's platforms, and no new timeline has been announced for an international rollout.

For its part, ByteDance claims to respect intellectual property and wants to work on new safeguards. The goal would be to better limit the unauthorized generation of well-known faces, recognizable voices, or elements from protected universes.

But this pause also illustrates a broader power dynamic where entertainment giants want to prevent AI models from freely exploiting their catalogs, while tech companies seek to advance more quickly on increasingly realistic tools.

For ByteDance, Seedance 2.0 could therefore become a large-scale test not only technically, but also in terms of its ability to make video AI compatible with the rules of the cultural sector…