Senators demand ByteDance end Seedance AI video app

Senators demand ByteDance end Seedance AI video app

Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Peter Welch demanded Tuesday that China-based TikTok mum or dad ByteDance “immediately shut down” an artificial intelligence app that can use photographs of real people resulting from what they described as “glaring” copyright points — weeks after TikTok formally arrange a three way partnership to let it preserve working in the US.

The Seedance app produced a number of alarming movies “within the first 24 hours” after an up to date version went live on Feb. 12, including “a brawl between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt that never really happened,” Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Welch (D-Vt.) wrote in a letter addressed to ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo.

Other examples that raised alarms included an AI-generated “rewritten” version of the ending of Netflix’s hit sequence “Stranger Things,” in addition to a battle between Marvel supervillain Thanos and DC Comics superhero Superman on the floor of Mars.

An AI video of a faux fight between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise went viral.

Seedance’s global rollout was delayed after pushback from major Hollywood studios.

“This technology is 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,” the senators wrote.

Copyright abuse by major tech corporations has turn into a key point of rivalry on Capitol Hill, with critics alleging that inventive work is being ripped off without correct credit score or compensation.

The senators described Seedance’s alleged violations as “part of a larger trend of artificial intelligence companies stealing protected work at the expense of the creative community.”

The missive got here after TikTok in January finalized a White House-brokered deal under which a new US entity runs the app in the States. The setup got here in the wake of considerations over the video-sharing app’s algorithm and the ability of the Chinese Communist Party to entry consumer data.

Seedance was constructed by ByteDance and initially restricted to China, with plans for a broader rollout to come back, though they lately hit a authorized hurdle in the US.

“If ByteDance wishes to build sustainable economic ties with democratic, free market economies, it must immediately shut down Seedance 2.0 to cease the mass infringement and related harms it has perpetrated, and excise unlicensed intellectual property from its data holdings,” the lawmakers said.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn is urging ByteDance to close down the AI video app. AP

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) also signed the bipartisan letter. Getty Images

A ByteDance consultant said the company “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 consultant said in an announcement.

ByteDance has paused the deliberate global rollout of Seedance after Hollywood giants Disney and Paramount despatched cease-and-desist letters to the company.

Disney accused ByteDance of performing a “virtual smash-and-grab” of the company’s mental property, including characters from the Marvel and Star Wars franchises.

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