A pair of U.S. senators are calling for the closure of a new ByteDance app that uses AI to generate videos of real people and copyrighted characters.
Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) are raising the alarm about Seedance, a new AI app from ByteDance, which is the company that created TikTok.
In a letter to ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo, the senators described the new app as "the most glaring example of copyright infringement from a ByteDance product to date, and you must immediately shut down Seedance and implement meaningful safeguards to prevent further infringing outputs," CNBC reported.
The lawmakers cited a video that features photo-realistic renderings of actors Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt acting against each other in a non-existent film in their letter. Other examples include generated scenes of Marvel Comics character Thanos fighting DC Comics’ iconic Superman, and a dissatisfied Stranger Things fan using the app to create their ideal version of the series finale. In another bizarre video, actor Will Smith fights a monster made out of spaghetti.
“Responsible global companies follow the law and respect core economic rights, including intellectual property and personal likeness protections,” Blackburn and Welch wrote in their letter.
ByteDance said in a statement to CNBC that it was taking steps to ensure copyrighted material is protected in its product.
“ByteDance respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0. We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users.” the company said.
This isn’t the first time ByteDance has been on the wrong end of U.S. regulators. Earlier this year, the company had to sell its majority control of TikTok to a group of U.S. companies — including Larry Ellison’s Oracle and California-based investment firm Silver Lake — or face having the app banned in the U.S.
The Motion Picture Association is also concerned by the new technology, and has sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance.
The Independent has requested comment from ByteDance.
According to The Information, ByteDance has temporarily paused its global release of Seedance 2.0.
As generative AI photo and video creation products become more advanced, calls for their regulation have become louder.
Earlier this year, Elon Musk's Grok AI was the subject of widespread criticism when users on X began using the app to alter photos of women. Many prompters asked the AI to take mundane photos of women and to redress the women in bikinis or other revealing or suggestive clothing. Some of the women targeted were celebrities, but others were private individuals who likely never consented to have their photos used in that manner.
XAI has taken steps to reduce how Grok can be used to produce nonconsensual lewd imagery.
In December, President Donald Trump issued an executive order effectively freezing regulatory efforts trying to rein in AI development. He justified the move by insisting that falling behind on AI development would amount to a national security threat to the U.S.
"United States AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation," Trump said in his executive order.
His executive order called for the protection of both children and copyrights, but also a ban on state laws individually hindering AI development.
"My Administration must act with the Congress to ensure that there is a minimally burdensome national standard — not 50 discordant State ones," he wrote. "The resulting framework must forbid State laws that conflict with the policy set forth in this order. That framework should also ensure that children are protected, censorship is prevented, copyrights are respected, and communities are safeguarded. A carefully crafted national framework can ensure that the United States wins the AI race, as we must."
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