Seedance 2.0, a new development from ByteDance, has already attracted attention by creating a massive array of videos featuring characters like Spider-Man and Deadpool, which have quickly spread across the internet.
According to the BBC, the platform is capable of producing videos with astonishing quality based on brief text instructions. However, major film studios like Disney and Paramount have already begun accusing ByteDance of copyright infringement, which creates additional challenges for the industry.
What is Seedance and why is it generating such interest?
Although the initial launch of Seedance in June 2025 went largely unnoticed, the second version released eight months later caused a real sensation.
Creative director of Videostate Jan-Willem Blom noted, “I don’t think this bodes well for AI. It looks like an element of a real production process.”
He added that Western AI systems have made strides in creating stunning images, but Seedance seems to have combined all these achievements into one product.
Seedance, like other AI tools such as Midjourney and Sora from OpenAI, can create videos based on text prompts, sometimes even a single hint is enough to yield a quality result.
“This is particularly impressive as the system combines text, images, and sound into one solution,” says AI ethics researcher Margaret Mitchell.
One of the criteria for evaluating Seedance was the creation of a video where Will Smith is eating spaghetti.
Seedance not only created a realistic video of Will Smith enjoying pasta but also spawned viral clips where he battles a spaghetti monster, looking like a high-budget film.
Many film industry professionals and experts believe that Seedance opens a new era in video content creation technology.
The action scenes produced by the system look more realistic than those of competitors, notes David Kwok from the animation studio Tiny Island Productions in Singapore.
“It creates the feeling that you have a cinematographer or director specializing in action scenes,” he adds.
Prospects and Challenges
Seedance is facing copyright issues, which is becoming an increasingly relevant topic in the age of artificial intelligence.
Experts believe that AI companies prioritize technology over human resources, creating more powerful tools and using data without consent.
Hollywood studios have expressed dissatisfaction with the use of Seedance characters protected by copyright, such as Spider-Man and Darth Vader. Disney and Paramount have sent the company letters demanding that they cease using their content. Japan is also investigating ByteDance for copyright infringement after viral AI-generated videos featuring popular anime characters gained popularity.
ByteDance stated that it is taking steps to “strengthen existing protections” against copyright violations. This is not a unique situation for this Chinese company.
In 2023, the New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming they used its materials without permission to train their AI models. Last year, Reddit also sued Perplexity, accusing the company of illegally collecting user data. Disney expressed similar concerns about Google.
According to Mitchell, it is important to clearly label content to prevent deception and strengthen public trust in AI, which is more important than creating “more appealing” videos.
Developers need to create systems that manage licensing and payments, as well as provide mechanisms for contesting unauthorized use, she adds.
Disney struck a $1 billion deal with OpenAI, the developer of Sora, to legally use characters from “Star Wars,” Pixar, and Marvel.
Shanahan Koni, a researcher from the University of Melbourne, believes that the developers of Seedance were aware of potential copyright issues related to using Western intellectual property but decided to take the risk.
“There are enough opportunities for strategic circumvention of the rules to temporarily violate them and achieve marketing results,” he adds.
Meanwhile, for small companies, Seedance represents too useful a tool to ignore.
Kwok from Tiny Island Productions claims that such high-level AI will allow their company to create films that would otherwise be too expensive to produce.
He cited the growing Asian market for short videos and micro-series, which are typically produced on a limited budget—around $140,000 for a maximum of 80 episodes lasting less than two minutes each.
Previously, these projects were limited to romantic or family plots to reduce costs; however, now, according to Kwok, AI can “elevate low-budget projects to a new level, turning them into science fiction, historical dramas, and action films.”
China on the Path to Technological Leadership?
Seedance is once again drawing attention to Chinese tech companies.
“This confirms that Chinese technology is at the forefront of modern capabilities,” emphasizes Koni. “If ByteDance was able to create this seemingly out of nothing, what other innovations can Chinese companies offer?”
Last year, the Chinese model DeepSeek made waves globally with its low-cost big data processing model, surpassing ChatGPT and becoming the most downloaded free app in the Apple Store in the U.S.
In recent years, Beijing has made artificial intelligence and robotics key targets of its economic strategy, investing heavily in the development of advanced computer chips, automation, and generative AI, aiming for technological superiority over the U.S.
While attention is focused on Seedance 2.0, other major Chinese companies have introduced their own generative AI tools ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, albeit in less noticeable forms.
Analyst Bill Bishop noted in his newsletter that the Spring Festival is becoming a “festival of artificial intelligence,” as companies plan to launch new applications during a time when millions of people are at home trying out new technologies.
He predicts that 2026 could be a turning point for the mass adoption of AI in China—not only in chatbots but also in AI agents processing transactions, programming tools, and video content creators actively using AI.
